Greyscale [✓]

Chapter 32

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO

Hannah spent the next few days in bed, curled up beneath her duvet in a little burrito of warmth until she could pretend the Winter Ball hadn't happened. It wasn't that easy, however, especially as Cameron was still marching around the house muttering profanities under his breath and Becky kept texting her messages of worry. The events of the day had cemented an unlikely friendship between the two girls and Becky no longer looked at her with suspicion but even so, she was suffocating Hannah. Once Mohammad and Carter had heard what had happened – along with half the school although luckily, all the details weren't known – they too were tiptoeing on eggshells around her.

Rayne was the only one acting normally and for that, Hannah was immensely grateful. Once figuring out that she didn't want to talk about Gabriel or Ashlyn, he tactfully changed the subject back to the search for her missing father. She allowed herself to fall back into the mystery of the all elusive Chris Davis, a welcome distraction.

Whilst she couldn't find any more information about him online, she had stalked his company website enough to understand a little bit more about it. And now that she was exhausted of lazing in bed being depressed all day, she decided to finally get up and do something about it.

Hannah pattered out of her bed with a sigh, rubbing her hand over Puddles' head as she fed her pet rabbit before making her way to the bathroom. Once she'd gotten ready in a faded pair of jeans and a cropped black jumper, she grabbed a banana for lunch and ran out of the house before Cam could question her.

She slipped her earphones in her ears as she climbed the steps for her closest train station, following the GPS on her phone until she reached the office of Dean and Davis. It was within a glass building, light reflecting off it in a rare moment of British sunshine as pedestrians walked past without a glance. The city was as busy as it always was and Hannah smiled at the throng of people pushing past her; enjoying the fact that nobody paid a second glance in her direction. There was nothing she loved more in that moment than the feeling of anonymity.

The disastrous Christmas of her family hadn't left her memory; a fear pouring into her that this unknown part of her family could be just as bad but she tried to remain optimistic.

Even if Chris Davis ended up being as much of a dickhead as her mother always implied, at least she would see it with her own eyes. At least Hannah would be able to put a face next to the giant question mark in her head and most of all, at least she would be able to see where she really came from.

She felt a little niggle of guilt nestle inside her when she thought about what her aunt and uncle would think. When they had finally told her the story of her father, they surely hadn't expected she would do anything with the information. But here she was, sitting at a bus stop opposite his office building.

She watched people go in and out of the building, eyes barely straying from the doors as the sun began to lower in the dreary sky. The hours had passed, blurring into each other and she had ignored every phone call or text message received. And at long last, just as she was about to give up and go home, she saw the man she was waiting for.

Hannah didn't know exactly how she had recognised him, considering she didn't know what he looked him but somehow, she was convinced it was him. The picture of the two children had been screenshot and saved on her phone, their hair colour identical to the man in front of her.

He loitered at the entrance of the building, standing against the door he had left whilst talking to a man with dark skin and long hair tied in a plait at the bottom of his waist. Before long, he bade the unknown man farewell and began to walk, before pulling a phone out of his pocket.