Chapter 0951

“Let me take this little rabbit,” Maryam says, quite gentle and friendly, reaching for Marigold. Jackson tilts the little girl towards her friend and Marigold laughs, going happily and easily to Maryam, who takes her over to the window to look outside.

“I’m so sorry, Jackson,” Hank says, coming close and looking up into my mate’s eyes. “I…I should have put it together before.”

“It’s not your fault,” Jackson says with an easy shrug, and down the bond I can tell that he truly holds nothing against this man who is clearly doing so much to help so many people. “As you say, Tasha was likely hiding her identity and going her best not to be found. It’s not your job to see through that kind of subterfuge.”

“Please,” I say, stepping close to Jacks and clasping my hands around his arm, wanting him to feel my support. “Is there anything you can tell us, Hank? About Marigold’s…history?”

Hank sighs and looks over to where his daughter is standing with Marigold, pointing out towards the park that abuts the palace, maybe chatting about some of the animals that live there. “What I know is brief and largely medical. Our little pop-up clinics served…hundreds, maybe thousands of people in need and still barely scratched the surface of what needs to be done up there.” Hank hangs his head, pressing the bridge of his nose between his fingers. “But…that little girl and her mother made an impact. They were hard to forget.”

Jackson tenses next to me and I look up at him, worried. But he simply clenches his jaw and steels himself, wanting to know.