It took a moment for her gaze to adjust to the dim lighting and to locate the group inside.
“I’m sorry, but we’re not yet open,” a male voice called out.
“No wait.” She recognized Ian McLaughlin as he stood from the table. “Hailey?”
She nodded, the lump in her throat so massive she couldn’t breathe past it.
“Get out.” Another chair scraped on the floor, and her startled gaze darted to Ian’s twin brother, Colin, as he strode quickly toward her. “You have no business here.”
Before he could reach her, Sarah was at his side, pulling him back.
“It’s fine, Colin. Please, sit down.”
For a moment, Colin’s gaze locked on Hailey’s and the blazing resentment in them had her flinching. She expected it from Ian and Sarah, but hadn’t prepared herself to see it from a family member. How naïve of her.
“Is there something we can help you with?” Sarah’s tone, though polite, held a thread of tension.
This was the Sarah she remembered. Patient and nice, even when she had every reason to hate her. An ache bloomed in her heart and not for the first time she missed the friendship with Sarah she’d destroyed.
“Hello, Sarah. Ian.” Hailey thrust her hands into the pockets of her scrubs and forced a slight smile. “Could we talk for a moment? Privately?” She appeared as if she wanted to turn tail and run. “Maybe step outside?”
Sarah glanced at Ian, and they seemed to communicate silently before she nodded.
“All right.”
Hailey turned and walked back out of the pub, knowing the other two would follow her.
The parking lot was deserted and offered them the privacy she needed.
She turned to face them and her heart sank. There was so much regret and pain on Ian’s face. His gaze wouldn’t meet hers as his arm stayed securely around Sarah’s waist.
They were together again. As they always should’ve been. She’d heard the rumors that Sarah had returned, and then that she and Ian were involved again. But it was only when she’d learned the two had a daughter that Hailey knew she had to come forward.
“Hailey,” Sarah began, discomfort clear in her voice. “We don’t really need to do this. Ian and I are trying to forgive and forget what happened that night—”
“That’s just it. You don’t know what happened that night.” Hailey drew in a shuddering breath, and glanced at Ian. “Neither of you do.”
Sarah shook her head.
“You mean I was just too drunk to remember?” Ian said flatly. “I have a good guess. There’s no need to go into details—”
“There is, actually.” Hailey closed her eyes briefly. “I should’ve done this years ago.”
“Done what?” Sarah’s tone shifted into unease.
No turning back now. They already despised her. While what she was about to tell them may not make things easier, it would shift the hurt. Shift the betrayal. And they deserved to know the truth.
Hailey took a deep breath and forced herself to continue. “Back in high school, I was in a really bad place. You probably heard the rumors. My parents were crackheads and dirt poor. More than once CPS got involved, and there was a real danger of my younger brother and I being taken away. Separated.”
It was hard to talk about it, because it seemed a lifetime ago. There was so much shame associated with those years.
“I heard the rumors,” Sarah admitted. “Though I wasn’t sure if they were true. You kept that part of your life pretty private.”
She’d had to.
“Things got even worse my senior year,” she went on. “Mom was late on bills and really hurting for money, and the ways she was talking about earning it…weren’t good.” Hailey drew in a ragged breath, hesitated, and then lifted her gaze to meet Sarah’s dead on. “So when your dad approached me and offered me five hundred dollars to make it look like I slept with Ian, I said yes.”
No one said anything for a moment, but the small, choked gasp came from Sarah. Ian caught her as her knees seemed to give out.
“My dad?” Sarah repeated, shaking her head. “He would never…”
Her words drifted off, and Hailey could see the moment Sarah gave up on that argument. The moment she decided her dad would have done that.
Ian seemed a bit less convinced.
“I may not remember much about that night, but I remember you climbing into bed with me. Why would I remember that if we didn’t have sex?”
“I kept plowing you with drinks, Ian. To make it look like you were just wasted.” Oh crap it was so hard to admit this. “But I slipped something like a roofie into your drink. Your dad suggested it, Sarah, and with my parents being who they were, it wasn’t hard to get one.”