"So she made a mistake as a teenager. We both have been in those shoes, Sean. Show me a teen that hasn't either gotten in trouble with their parents or even the law,” John replied. “Firing Nicholas for one human error wasn't justified."
Wait, she screamed mentally. John. His name caused her body to shake in despair. It couldn't possibly be what she was thinking. Could it? No! John was too common of a name. It was impossible.
Still, a sense of foreboding washed over her, and Ariel heard the hint of annoyance in John's voice but couldn't detect if it was directed at Sean or her. She should have been truthful with him from the beginning. She'd thought it had been forgotten. She had been positive the files had been buried, and had hoped when Capture Inc. had her investigated, the information wouldn't show up on their radar. She was promised no one would ever find out, had believed that part of her life had been hidden so well, she'd be able to move on. But now the one person she'd hoped would never find out was probably going to look at her with disdain, possibly hatred, once he found out she'd almost killed someone.
Ariel closed her eyes, anxiety and guilt filling every pore of her being. The outcome of the case had rested on two things—the fact that the victim would recover 100 percent, and Uncle Thomas, who was a local judge, serving the town of Spring Valley for over thirty years. Her uncle had stepped in and had written a letter to the presiding judge, asking for leniency, and she was grateful. Because of his influence, her punishment had been two years of probation, community service, and a suspended license. But it didn't ease her responsibility, her fault for injuring someone.
Reliving the memories tormented her. She could recall the impact, all the sickening details and sounds, and it shamed her. The grief burned a hole in her stomach, and Ariel had forced herself to forget the past, so she could move on with her future. But now the idea seemed an impossibility. It seemed she was destined to carry such a shameful burden, and rightfully so.
She couldn't even be upset with Sean. Though he had a horribly incorrect view of her, Ariel suspected what drove him was his protective feelings for John. She would do the same for Isabel, but she detected a hint of hardness in Sean's tone, mixed with self-righteousness, as if he enjoyed giving John the news.
"It gets better,” Sean stated sarcastically. “A whole lot better. Not only was she arrested for DUI, but the same night she was hauled in, she was charged with attempted manslaughter. She'd hit a twenty-three-year-old man crossing the street that night. A miracle, the man survived the injuries, but he required several operations to repair the damage done."
"This can't be. She can't be the same person."
Ariel closed her eyes at the displeasure in his voice. She wished she'd told him. Perhaps it would have changed everything they'd experience together, preventing anything from ever happening. And she wouldn't have blamed him one bit. She couldn't stop the hitch in her breath, and the tears from flowing. Why did she ever think this wouldn't come back to haunt her?
"Her uncle is a judge. I suspect he helped get her records sealed once she served her two-year probation. I also think his pull extended to the amount of punishment she received. But our private investigator called in a few favors for me, and here it is. All the details and even a photo of the victim. Your injuries do look painful. It was in fact a miracle you survived this."
There was no way she could have heard Sean correctly. It was a miscommunication. But now she remembered when she'd first heard John's name. The sense of deja vu, and knowing in that minute, he was linked to her in some way. She'd ignored it then, had forced the feeling away as if it were nothing. And now she regretted the foolish impulse. If she'd only listened to herself, she wouldn't be caught in a predicament that would only result in her heart broken into a million pieces.
"I suspect she knew from the very beginning who you were. She could have killed you that night. I could have lost you.” Sean's words squashed any doubts she had that it couldn't be true.
Oh God, could this get any worse? It was a fluke, a once-in-a-lifetime coincidence she would have never seen coming. Bile rose up her throat, and she forced down the need to puke. How could something like this ever happen? Was this a cosmic joke? Or was the world a really small place after all? She couldn't handle this. The dread she'd felt earlier multiplied and now weighed heavily in the pit of her stomach. This was something she never saw coming.
But she had heard Sean correctly, and suddenly she remembered every second of that horrible night. She'd drunk too much and swore driving home would be a breeze. She'd arrogantly steered the streets, racing to get home before her parents arrived. She had seen John crossing the street, and had forced the car to a stop by pressing heavily down on the brakes. It had been too late. She hadn't been sober or fast enough, and the sounds of him bouncing off her car, landing on the pavement would forever be etched into her memory. She'd almost killed him, ended his life over one horrible judgment call. He'd recovered fully from his injuries, and she had been elated upon finding out. But none of it washed away the horror, the emotional wreck she had become. It had taken her years to force away the guilt...years to forget the shame. She'd never had another drink again, because the thought of what John had gone through sickened her.