96

"Ms. Marie, is it ok if I record our conversation?" she shouted through the door.

"Yes it is ma'am. I will be out in one second. I need to get out of this dress." I yelled back to her, which earned a laugh.

"Hannah, you know very well that you are to call me Sandra. I am not old enough to be refereed to as ma'am." she shot back with another short laugh. "I'm glad to see Mr. Leo Ward treating you well."

I laughed as I slipped on a pair of my own sweats, which weren't as comfy as Leo's, and a white crop top. I walked out of my closet to find the short Latina woman sitting at my desk admiring a pair of shoes by my door.

Not very many people know this but Sandra was the older sister of one of the very few friends I had growing up. We were six years apart but every time I was over at her house, she made me feel welcomed. I stopped going over there when her sister was killed by her own father, which is why she is in the domestic crimes unit of the FBI. We got back in touch after everything came to light about my father abusing me. She knew the full extent of what happened to me but since I would not allow her to take a formal statement. She did not know about the evidence I had complied against my father.

I even stayed with her, her girlfriend, and their boyfriend until I moved out here since I was put into protective custody and would only be comfortable around them.

I silently walked over to a drawer in my desk and pulled out a prerecorded tape of the events that conspired with my father along with the flash drive that contained the evidence.

I handed them to her as she tried to start the typical questions as to the whole story of that happened. I informed her that I did not wish to go through the events again and again so I made the recording for her.

After that, she asked my the routine questions about what happened tonight. And I told her every detail about it since Leo and I arrived. When that was done, she ended the recording and her eyes drifted back to the shoes while my thoughts wondered to the man down stairs who, I assume, was waiting for me to finish up here.