Serenity (Inevitable #5)(105)

Hayley shrugged. "Um, everything is still pretty hazy, but I think they told us their names were Brent and Greg. No idea at all about their last names. As for the car, maybe a Mercedes? Or a Lexus? It was a dark car, and really dark outside so I didn't pay attention."

Matthew blew out a frustrated breath, running a hand through his already mussed hair. "Okay. Speaking of feeling hazy, there's still a few things that I'm really unclear about here. So why don't you start over from the beginning, and we'll go through all of this step by step."

Hayley opened her mouth as though to protest his request, but he figured the look on his face must have quickly convinced her otherwise. With poorly concealed impatience, she took him and Lindsey, who was still hovering in the doorway, through the events from that night six weeks ago.

It was one of the weekends that she was supposed to have been with Matthew, but had refused to go because of the party, as well as Brianne's invitation to spend the weekend at her house. Since Casey would be with his father, Lindsey had taken the opportunity to fly to Palm Springs for the weekend with Nicole and another girlfriend. The party had been on Friday evening, at the home of a senior at their school, and the house had been packed with nearly a hundred partygoers, most of whom Hayley hadn't known very well. Despite the crowd, Brianne had declared the party "dullsville", and had eagerly latched on to the two guys who were probably in their early twenties, likely college students. Hayley figured they were party crashers, since word of this particular party had spread quickly among their circle of friends.

Already more than a little drunk and high, she had gone along willingly with Brianne and the two males, but had been too out of it to pay attention to where they were driving. She vaguely remembered entering a big house high up on a hill, where another, even bigger party was in full swing. One of the guys who'd brought them there handed her a drink of something that she had chugged down without a second thought. The next thing she remembered was waking up in the spare bed in Brianne's room the next morning, hungover and completely out of it.



       
         
       
        

"At first, I just figured I'd had too much to drink and passed out," she related. "But then when I went to take a shower, I realized that, uh, well, other stuff must have happened. Same with Brianne."

"How in the hell did you manage to get back to Brianne's house if you were both so out of it?" demanded Matthew. "I hope to God neither of you tried to drive in that condition."

Hayley shook her head. "We actually took Uber to the first party. I, uh, guess Brent and Greg must have dropped us back home. I know we didn't take Uber because neither of us have a record of calling them for the return trip."

Matthew placed his hands on his daughter's shoulders, looking her square in the face. "When you realized what had happened, why in the world didn't you tell someone?" he asked solemnly. "I would have come for you immediately, and I'm sure your mother would have flown home right away. Were you just going to keep this to yourself for the rest of your life?"

Tears glimmered in Hayley's eyes again as she shrugged. "I was ashamed. And embarrassed," she admitted. "And I didn't want to make either of you mad at me for all the stupid stuff I did - getting drunk, going off with a couple of guys I didn't know. Brianne's parents would have gone through the roof if they'd found out, so we promised each other to keep quiet about it. I mean, I know it sounds real bad, but neither of us were actually hurt. Though the part about winding up pregnant really, really sucks."

"Well, I still want to call the police," declared Matthew, taking out the phone that fortunately hadn't suffered any serious damage after he'd flung it against his bedroom wall. "I doubt that they'll be able to do much at this point, with so much time having past, and you and Brianne not remembering anything. But they might have had reports about related incidents, and can tie them to the same suspects. It doesn't hurt to try."

"No, Daddy!" protested Hayley, snatching the phone from his hand. "Please, please don't call the police! I think I would die of embarrassment if I had to tell that story to someone besides you and Mom. And - and it upsets me to have to keep talking about it, you know? Can we please just let it be and go on from here? Even if by some miracle the cops found these guys, so what? It's not going to change the fact that I'm pregnant now."

"What about my feelings, Hayley?" demanded Matthew. "I want to find these two bastards and beat the crap out of them for what they did to my little girl. Do you blame me for feeling that way? Or at least trying to bring them to justice."