Will ripped up the letter and, to be safe, burned the pieces. He didn't smoke, but had gotten in the habit of carrying a lighter during his days in the smuggling ring. You never knew when you needed to get rid of evidence.
With a sigh, he slumped over and rested his head on the table. At this point, trying to continue to work was useless. 'I sincerely hope that he never found the Dixons' daughter' repeated in his head like a drum beat. It still pissed him off.
What did that guy know? He had never even met Will! Abramson didn't know how a desperate kid had bartered to save the life of the only person who had ever been truly kind to him by saying anything that would work.
He had never once thought about killing Hazel! She was the one thing in this selfish, terrible world that he wanted to protect!
His methods might not have been the greatest, but he had saved her life twice already. Keeping that little girl alive and eventually marrying her was what he was most proud of.
Will needed to see her. It was the only thing that could calm him down.
He went looking for her in her studio, but she wasn't there. A half-finished painting was on an easel and a used palette was sitting out.
Ah. She must have gone out to get more paint. But how long had she been gone? The paint on the palette looked dry. He was worried about her so he called her, forcing his tone to be normal so he wouldn't scare her or tip her off that something was wrong.
Hazel sounded terribly upset when she confessed, "I…I can't drive."
She couldn't drive? Why?!
"Why? Are you hurt? What happened, Hazel?" Will fretted.
There was a long pause before she said anything else and when she did, it wasn't what he was expecting at all. "…have you ever heard of the Bay Area Blade?"
Had he ever heard of the Bay Area Blade? Unfortunately, Will was related to that idiot.
Hazel never talked about what happened to her parents. Why was she doing it now? Did the book upset her so much that she had to tell someone about it? That wasn't like her and it only pissed Will off further.
He had seen an interview about that book online. It was entirely possible that she had seen it in person while she was out.
"Is this about that filthy book?"
"You've seen it, then?"
"Unfortunately. Where are you? I'll come get you and then we'll sue John Abramson into oblivion for emotional distress," Will said, already thinking of a plan to make it happen without exposing himself.
He wouldn't subject Hazel to being involved in a lawsuit. It would only upset her further. This was his problem and he had to take care of it.
Abramson wanted to find Billy Thornton? That fool was about to get more than he bargained for!
She sighed. "I'll send you my location. But Will, why are you so upset about the book, when it has nothing to do with you?"
It had far more to do with Will than Hazel could ever know. At least she wasn't mentioned by name in it. His original name was, in a very defamatory way.
"It has to do with you. That automatically means it has to do with me too."
Unfortunately, she picked up something he wished she hadn't. He hadn't been careful enough because he was already on edge from what happened earlier.
"I never told you about my connection to the Bay Area Blade. All I did was ask if you knew who he was. Did you read my file somehow? Because there's no other way you should know that."
Will couldn't hold back a curse. Stupid! He couldn't afford to slip up like this!
He had actually read a file on Hazel twice. The one Charlie made of her family that allowed Will to save her life and the one the mental hospital had on her so he wouldn't lose track of her after burning it down.
It wasn't a lie when he replied, "Yes, I read your file. We can talk about this more later. I need to come get you first."
Will had to get a rideshare to her location and when he arrived, she hugged him immediately. Though she was likely doing it for her own comfort, it made him feel slightly better too. She was here. Charlie had been wrong about him. She was living proof of that.
"Are you okay?" she asked quietly.
Will didn't control his tone as well as he should have, thinking of how much he hated his pathetic excuse for a father. "No. I'm pissed at that worthless worm!"
"Do we even have the grounds to sue him?"
Naturally, Hazel thought Will was talking about Abramson. He wasn't much better, really. Capitalizing on other people's suffering.
"Yes. Don't you worry about a thing. I'll take care of this and make sure you never have to see a single copy of that book again."
Unfortunately, she hadn't let go of the file thing. "How did you know, though? When did you see my file?"
Will sighed before telling a careful version of the truth. "Before the hospital burned down. The staff there were careless. I've known who you were and what you had been through since before we first met outside."
Both of these things were true. He had seen her hospital file and had known who she was and what happened to her before they met up in the middle of the night there.
But he saw that file long after they met again. A different file was what made him know about her greatest pain.
Will would have recognized his angel anywhere. Being mute and having rattier hair didn't change her perfect little face. He had never forgotten it during all their years apart.
If not for the day she saved him from starvation, he never would have bothered standing up to Charlie to save her life. That was what truly started all of this. Neither of them would be here right now otherwise.
"And you still didn't think I was crazy."
How could Will ever think Hazel was crazy? It wasn't her fault that Charlie was too violent for an innocent little girl to handle.
"No. Never. He was the crazy one. What happened to you wasn't your fault at all!"