70 pages 2 hours read

Laura Dave

The Last Thing He Told Me

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021

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Chapters 31-33Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 3

Chapter 31 Summary: “When We Were Young”

While deputies from the US Marshal’s office search for Bailey, Bradford grills Hannah at the Marshal’s office in downtown Austin. Hannah is afraid Nicholas Bell has kidnapped Bailey, but Bradford seems more concerned with getting a clear account of Hannah’s time in Austin.

As Hannah explains what she hoped to do in Austin—namely, solve the mystery of Owen’s identity—Bradford tells her he is the Marshal who helped Owen and Bailey escape Austin and the crime syndicate a decade earlier. Hannah is confused and says Jake told her that Owen was not in the Witness Protection Program (WITSEC). Bradford says Owen had planned to enter the program but changed his mind when the new identities that had been established for Owen and Bailey were compromised by a leak in the New York office. As a result, Owen took Bailey and ran, and Bradford was the only US Marshal who knew where they’d gone. Furthermore, Bradford says, Owen told him about falling in love with Hannah. Bradford advised Owen that he must not tell Hannah about his past.

Hannah asks Bradford why Owen ran this time, rather than coming to Bradford, and Bradford says Owen understood if he were arrested in connection with his company, his photo and name would be all over the national news—just as Avett’s had been—and fingerprints taken during an arrest would have revealed his true identity.