He pushed his hands into his pockets. “Haley.” The way he said my name, taking his time, rolling it over his tongue, as if tasting it, caused something to unfurl inside me. “Prison is not for girls like you. You won’t last an hour in that place. Stay here where you’re safe. I have the power to protect you.”
Before the jet had taken off, he had asked for my I.D., glanced at it briefly, and handed it back to me. That was how he knew my name. And yet he had refused to tell me his.
“What if someone saw me?” The words tumbled out of my mouth. “What if they went to the police?”
“I understand that you’re afraid. I can make it all go away. But you’ll have to trust me.”
I was quiet for a long heartbeat, and then I raised my gaze to meet his. “Why are you doing this? You don’t even know me.”
He tilted his head to one side. “I’m a good person. Good people help others. When I met you yesterday, you were lost, you needed someone to help you. I did just that.” His expression grew serious once more. “Now you have to allow me to finish that job.”
“Once you make it go away, can I return home?” Where was home anyway? The closet apartment in Serendipity which I was on the verge of being thrown out of for not paying the rent for three months? For all I knew, the landlord, who always reeked of old beer, had already tossed out my stuff. Honestly, I had nowhere to go. I had no one. No friends, no family, just me.
“There’s one thing you have to understand. If I’m going to help you out of this mess, I will be making myself an accessory to a crime. If you agree to let me help you, you can’t go back to where you came from, Haley. Do you understand that?” His eyes bore into mine, his dark gaze encircling me. “You have two choices. Walk away or stay.”
Tears blurred my vision. He was right. I couldn’t just go back and pretend nothing had happened, to pick up the reins of my barely there life and pretend I was normal. He was offering me a way out of a life I never wanted in the first place. My life had already disappointed me in more ways than one.
It started out all right in Boston, with parents who were in love, a love that made me feel safe. Until, during a family holiday to the beach, my older sister, Elizabeth, drowned and was never found. She was ten years old, just a year older than I was. In their search for comfort they were incapable of offering each other, my father walked out on us, and my mother found what she wanted at the bottom of a bottle. When I was two years away from finishing high school, my mother packed me and our few belongings and moved us to Serendipity, Wisconsin, to stay in the house she had inherited from her mother.
Just as we were trying to get settled, we received news that my father had committed suicide. Unable to cope with the loss of her husband, my mother stumbled into the world of prostitution and drowned herself even deeper into alcohol. A year before my graduation, her body struck her with a heart disease so acute, doctors said only a transplant could save her. But she didn’t qualify for a new heart. She died a month after I graduated.
Left with no other option, I sold the house to pay off some of the debts she left behind. Then I did what I had to do to survive.
Now here I was, surrounded by money. I’d be stupid to walk away. I had no idea how long this stranger intended to keep me here, but maybe I should take what I could. “Thank you,” I said between the pauses in my sobs. “Yes, please help me.”
“Good,” the man said and pulled his phone from his pocket. “Take a seat, I’ll be right back.” He strolled out of the room with the phone glued to his ear. “Take care of it. Don’t leave one trace behind,” I heard him say before he disappeared through a glass door.
I sank down onto one of the leather couches and sobbed, my shoulders shaking, my eyes drowning, my life as I knew it crumbling around me.
When he returned, he perched himself on the glass-top coffee table opposite me. He didn’t smile when he spoke. “It’s done. The best thing you can do for yourself now is to forget it ever happened. You were lucky enough to get a chance to walk away. Don’t dwell in the past. You will stay here for as long as necessary. And you will not contact anyone from your life. You have to promise me that or I cannot guarantee your protection.”
I wiped my eyes with a corner of the blanket and exhaled. After a small pause I nodded. “Thank you.”
He nodded. “I need to go and take care of some business, but my housekeeper, Lin, will be arriving soon. She’ll feed you and show you to your room to get some rest. I’ll also send someone over to bring you clothes.” He pulled out a piece of paper and a golden pen from his pocket. “Write down your clothing and shoe sizes.”