LITTLE GIRL LOST by SARAH BETH LEE (bill gates books to read TXT) 📖

to be remembering. He wondered if maybe Hannah had the answer to all his questions.

“Nick Hannah remembered you. When her Aunt asked her what she was thankful for she said ‘Aunt Ann I’m thankful for you.’ But I could hear her thoughts and she was thinking I’m thankful for Nick my guardian angel.”

Nick looked at Zach and for once in his life he didn’t know what to say. Hannah remembered him and was probably wondering why he never came back like he promised. He knew that Christmas Eve was too long to wait to see her. He hoped that maybe this Thanksgiving he could give her a real reason to be thankful.
A Thanksgiving to Remember

CHAPTER TEN
A THANKSGIVING TO REMEMBER


As Nick walked out of the theater he couldn’t get that movie out of his head. The Next Three Days had been a very real and thought provoking movie and he could see himself going to that extreme to save Hannah. He would cross hell and high water if anyone accused her of the unthinkable because he knew it just wasn’t in her to hurt another human being.

“Man that was intense.”

Nick looked up at Zach as he walked with his arm around Beth. “It was very suspenseful and whether she was guilty or not didn’t matter he made you believe she was innocent.”

Zach looked down at Beth nestled in the crook of his arm by his side. “Honey promise you will never be put in a compromising situation that ends with you in prison for life because I will so do that to get you out. However I’m not sure I will make it out alive.”

Beth laughed and hugged Zach as they walked. “I promise but if somehow I do end up in prison do not risk yourself to save me.”

Zach shrugged. “Sorry I can’t make that promise so you better not end up there.”

Nick laughed at their back and forth debate. He wondered if he would ever feel that comfortable with Hannah if she would ever look at him the way Beth looked at Zach. He slowed his pace and distanced himself from them so he didn’t have to see how in love they were because he already knew and it only made him think of Hannah and things that might never be.

Nick knew that by this time tomorrow he would know one way or the other how Hannah felt about him. He was more nervous than he had ever been in his entire life and he wasn’t sure what to make of that. He wanted her to feel something beyond the typical human reaction of puzzlement or disbelief he wanted her to feel the intense emotions that consumed him at just the thought of her. He knew in his heart that it didn’t matter how she looked he knew her soul and it was giving, loving and as pure as the white snow so he was sure that she would be the most beautiful woman he had ever met no matter what anyone else saw in her.

“Nick hurry up dude.”

Nick looked up to see everyone in the Explorer waiting on him. He shook his head trying to remove the thoughts of Hannah from his mind but they refused to go away. He climbed in the SUV and closed the door, still thinking of Hannah as they headed home.
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As the morning sun shined through the window Maddie sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She had slept in because it was Thanksgiving and her mother wouldn’t let her help with anything anyway. She always gave the staff the weekend off and she would prepare dinner herself.

Maddie looked around her childhood room and wondered why her mother refused to change one thing in the pink fantasy room of a teenage girl. She could see the pictures of her and Hannah in elementary school. She smiled as she remembered how they had hit it off immediately; almost if they had always known each other. They had both been as exceptionally smart and had gotten scholarships to the upscale preschool and then to Briarwood Academy.

At the time she and her mother had lived in a small apartment on the not so nice side of town. She had never met her daddy and she still had no idea who he was but mysteriously soon after she met Hannah she and her mother had moved to the upscale Meadow Brook estates. She had been so happy to be moving right next door to Hannah. Her mother had eventually met and married Justin Jacobs who was Hannah’s father’s lawyer. Maddie had never met her real father and she often wondered who he was and why he hadn’t cared enough to see her or want her. Justin had loved her and been wonderful to her mother but somewhere deep inside she still dreamed of finding her real father. She had broached the subject only once when she was sixteen but her mother had refused to listen or to be of any help at all. She had decided that today was the day she would make her mother listen to her and tell her the circumstances of her birth.

Maddie placed her bare feet on the hardwood floor and gasped at the cold. She immediately shoved her feet in her warm, fluffy house shoes. She scurried out of the room and down the hall to take a long hot shower. She needed to be prepared for the conversation that would soon follow. She adjusted the shower head and tested the water before climbing in. She picked up the shower gel and began to run scenarios of how she would approach her mother. She needed to know who her father was, if he was alive or dead and why she had never told her about him. As Maddie watched the bubbles swirl around the drain before disappearing she realized she had never even seen her birth certificate. She found that rather odd and again what was her mother hiding? Had she been afraid that her father wouldn’t love her? Or had she been afraid he might love her too much and take her away? Maddie had so many questions and only one person knew the answers, her mother.

Maddie turned the water off and grabbed the towel before stepping out of the shower. She dried her legs and arms before applying lotion as the need to know who her father was consumed her. She had this theory but it was almost too bizarre to be true but somewhere in the back of her mind she knew that Hannah was more to her than a friend and it hadn’t been until she met Hannah that her life had changed from one of poverty to comfort.

Maddie could still remember walking through the doors of the pretentious, overpriced preschool and Hannah had turned and smiled at her offering her a beacon of hope for what lay ahead. Maddie had watched as she said something to the man by her side before crossing to where she still stood. Hannah had reached for her hand and told her to hold her head up high and walk as if she belonged in the hallowed corridors as the snotty nosed, spoiled brats had begun to fill the halls. Maddie had laughed and looked up in to Hannah’s mischievous eyes and she had felt her breath catch in her throat as she saw her hazel eyes staring back at her as if she were looking in a mirror. She had never seen anyone with eyes like hers and she had often wondered where they came from obviously not her mother for she had crystal clear eyes as blue as the sky. She had felt an instant connection to Hannah that she had never been able to explain. The two had formed a friendship that was beyond anything else Maddie had ever encountered. As they grew older they were so attuned to one another’s emotions that they knew immediately when one was sick or upset. They could communicate with a touch, a smile or a look without ever uttering a single word. Maddie had found such a connection in her studies but it was always related to twins or multiple births but that had seemed so crazy but somehow now Maddie wondered if it wasn’t as crazy as she had always thought. She needed to know the truth and she would find it with or without her mother’s help.

She left the bathroom and began to pad down the hall as she heard her mother’s muffled sobs. She walked around the corner and peered in to the family room afraid of what she might find.
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Hannah walked across her bedroom and looked at her collection of hand-made ornaments on her shelf. She ran a finger along the wing of her favorite the first one she had received when she had needed it the most. She wondered if she would get one this year or with the sudden appearance of Nick they would stop. She knew it was crazy to believe that all the gifts, trinkets and baubles had been from him but it was a nice dream that she had clung to as the years passed. She thought of him as she looked at the intricate designs and the love that each ornament reflected. She pulled herself out of her runaway thoughts and walked to the shower. She had a lot to do today and she wondered what this visit to Veronica’s would be like. She knew Veronica would try to set her up with some self-centered, egotistical, rich bachelor. She knew she wouldn’t be staying long so she would play nice and get the hell out as the first opportunity arose. She would run to her safe haven next door to Maddie’s