The Broken Road (18+)

Chapter 20

Troy's POV

Jenny had been missing for over 24 hours. Anna, her parents and I spent the whole day calling various hospitals and police stations looking for someone who might be Jenny. We took turns looking after Hannah while the others worked, she knew something was wrong but she didn't know what. It was decided that telling her would cause her more stress and we would tell her once we knew something  for certain.

'Troy?' Hannah's voice said meekly, as she paused playing with her dolls house to look at me. 'Is mummy in trouble?'

Closing my eyes slowly, I took a deep breath, before turning to Jenny's mini-me to respond. 'We don't know Hannah. We're looking for her though.'

'Did Ken hurt her?' She said with tears in her eyes. 'I don't like Ken, he's mean. Mummy doesn't know but I hear him sometimes when he's hurting her. I don't like hearing her cry.'

'Oh Hannah.' I sighed, pulling her into a hug. 'When we find her, we'll make sure Ken never hurts her again, okay?'

'We'll be her protectors. Like the Avengers. They saved the world and we'll save mummy. I don't have super powers though.'

'You don't need super powers Hannah, just being there for your mummy makes her feel better. She loves you so much.' I smiled, patting her back.

'I wish she was here.' She whispered. 'Do you love my mummy?'

Hannah's words made me tense, either from shock or fear of admitting the truth. 'I care about her a lot. We're friends.'

'Ken said mummy doesn't need friends.' Hannah looked up at me curiously.

'Ken is a bad man, Hannah. A lot of the rules he made you and your mummy follow aren't fair rules, okay? Friends are important, they look after you, they make you happy.'

'Will you be my friend too?' Hannah asked with a shy smile. I nodded quickly, giving her a quick squeeze, before letting her go and picking up a doll to play with.

'Troy!' Jenny's dad, Gareth, came running into the room. He glanced quickly at Hannah who was engrossed in her game already, before speaking again. 'We've found something.'

Standing up quickly and following him to the living room, I saw Anna and Jenny's mum standing around the table, a phone laid on it on speaker phone.

'A female in her early to mid 20s and a male in his mid to late 30s were brought into Chapel Hospital late last night. Their car had gone off road and into the river, completely submerged. Male dead on arrival. Female in critical and unstable condition.' The masculine voice spoke. I felt my body trembling in shock.

'Can you give us any more information? How do we know if it's her?' Jenny's mother, Jane, spoke in a shaky voice.

'That's all the information we've been given to release to the public so far.' The voice replied. 'If you go to Chapel hospital, I will let them know you're coming and you can try and identify her. Bring a photo with you to show the staff in case she's in surgery and cannot be seen at the time.'

'Okay. Thank you Steve.' Gareth spoke, before hanging up. 'Who's coming with me?'

'I will.' I exclaimed instantly. 'I mean... if you don't mind?'

'We'll stay with Hannah. Call the second you know anything.' Jane said, placing her hands on Anna's shoulders. Anna's eyes were filled with tears, her lips trembling.

'She's in critical condition.' She whispered. 'What if she doesn't make it?'

'Don't talk like that.' Her dad snapped, pulling on his shoes. 'We don't even know it's her yet.'