by Cate Beauman
Table of Contents
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
About the Author
Other Titles by Author
Hailey’s Truth
Copyright © 2012 by Cate Beauman. All rights reserved.
Visit Cate at www.catebeauman.com
Or visit her Facebook page: www.facebook.com/CateBeauman
First Kindle Edition: October 2012
Editor: Liam Carnahan
Cover and formatting: Streetlight Graphics
All rights reserved. This eBook is licensed for the personal enjoyment of the original purchaser only. This eBook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this eBook and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are a work of fiction or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Dedication
To my pal Hank. Thank you so much for everything!
Chapter 1
Redding, California
December 2003
THE SKY WAS DARK, THE stars winking in the frigid cold. Hailey snuggled under the blanket Daddy had handed her, tense in the heavy silence filling the car. Jeremy leaned against her shoulder, oblivious, worn out, and asleep after the exhausting fun of Tyson Miller’s Welcome Home Party. Ice glazed the roads—a rare occurrence in Redding, but she knew Mom and Daddy were watchful for the deadly sheen on the treacherous mountain pass.
“Mom, do you think we should turn around? I’m sure the Miller’s wouldn’t mind if we stayed.”
Mom turned in her seat, smiling, reaching out to hold Hailey’s hand. “We’ll be all right, sweetheart. We’re taking it slow. We’ll be home before you know it. Close your eyes. I’ll wake you when we get there.”
Hailey nodded, giving her mom’s small, soft hand a gentle squeeze before she let go. Resting her head against the seat, she closed her eyes, listening to her brother’s breathing, the whir of heat pumping through the sedan. She dozed off, drifting toward deep sleep.
“Harold, watch out!”
Hailey’s eyes flew open, her heart pounding as the car skidded toward a dense patch of trees.
Her father over-corrected, finding purchase just inches from a formidable pine. The car came to a dead stop.
“Damn.” Daddy’s breath rushed out in rapid heaves as he white-knuckled the steering wheel.
“That was too close, Harold.” Mom clutched the door handle, her voice shaking. “I think we should turn around. We’re closer to the Miller’s than we are home. I don’t want to risk the children…”
“All right, honey. We’ll turn around.” He took Mom’s hand, kissed her knuckles the way he always did. “Are the kids okay?”
Hailey slammed her eyes shut as her mother turned.
“Yes. They didn’t even flinch.”
Daddy chuckled. “I guess they wore themselves out.” He shifted into reverse on the desolate road. The wheels whirled, spinning in place, before they found traction and the car finally moved. “We’ll have quite an adventure to tell them about in the morning.”
When the car accelerated, Hailey opened her eyes and stared at Daddy’s big hands on the wheel, focusing on the gold wedding band wrapped around his finger. She was so lucky to have this, to have them—a home, a family.
She stared at her mother’s pretty profile as she sat up straight in the passenger seat, looking out the windshield, forever watching. They were almost back to the Miller’s. Hailey settled her head on the rest, closed her eyes again, content, safe. She blinked them open as the bright lights of an on-coming vehicle blinded her. Hailey threw her arm against her forehead in defense.
“What’s this guy doing?” Daddy swerved to the right, toward the shoulder, catching another patch of ice.
“Harold! Harold!”
The car spun once, twice, gaining speed as her mother gasped and her father swore. Metal slammed against tree trunk with a deafening smash. Hailey flew forward as she heard her mom scream. Jeremy woke on a strangled cry as the oncoming vehicle collided with the driver’s side door, sending the car flying again, crushing Jeremy and Mom against another tree trunk.
Dazed, Hailey sat back. The car was silent but for her sobbing breaths. She glanced around in the dark. Daddy was slumped over the steering wheel. Mom leaned forward, her body sagging against the seatbelt, her head dangling. Hailey stared at her brother, at the blood oozing from his temple.
“Mom. Daddy,” Hailey said in a whisper, unable to find her voice. Her breathing came in spasms as she tried to sit up, but the seatbelt held her in place. She fought the confinement, reaching, stretching for Jeremy. “Jeremy!” She jumped, startled by her own scream. “Mom, Daddy, Jeremy’s bleeding! Wake up and help me. I’m stuck!”
No one moved. No one rushed to help.
She struggled against her belt again, fumbling with the release. It was jammed. Hands shaking, she tugged and pulled, but the thick strap wouldn’t budge. “Mom, help me! Daddy.” Why wouldn’t they move? Why wouldn’t they help?
Tears coursed down her cheeks. “Mom!” She scraped and clawed at the thick fabric trapping her in place, her fingers aching as she ripped the skin from the tips, desperate to free herself from her prison.
Just then, another set of lights blinded her. A pickup came to a screeching halt yards away. Two people ran forward, shouting, peaking through the spider-cracked glass.
“Help me! I’m stuck!” Hailey couldn’t allow herself to focus on her family. They lay there as if they no longer lived.
In the back of her mind, somewhere dark, somewhere deep, she knew; but she wouldn’t let herself believe. Instead, Hailey concentrated only on her belt, on her need to be free.
“We’ll get you out of there, honey. Hold on. I’m going to call for help,” a man’s voice said before she heard him run off.
Hailey stared at her mother again. The headlights of the pickup showcased the streams of crimson dripping from her ear, from her nose, from her mouth. Daddy’s face still lay pressed against the deflated airbag, its white cloth smeared with blood. She looked at Jeremy, willing him to move, to make a noise, to do something. “Jeremy, please wake up. Please.”
He didn’t respond.
She tried again, her voice desperate, pleading on a sob. “Please, Jeremy, please. Don’t let me be here alone. Don’t leave me by myself.” She remembered being by herself before Mom and Daddy saved her all those years ago.
The men ran back, peering into the window again. The one in a ball cap tried the door, shaking the
vehicle with his effort to open it. “It’s stuck. We’re going to have to bust the window, Billy.”
The bearded guy, Billy, cupped his hands around the glass, making eye contact with Hailey. “Honey, do you have something you can cover your face with? We have to break the window.”
She stared into his eyes, trying to focus on his words before she looked around at her silent family. Why couldn’t she concentrate?
“Honey, cover your face with the blanket so we can get you out of there.”
Hailey picked up the end of the fleece Daddy had handed her, pressed the soft fabric against her cheeks.
“That a girl.” Billy pounded at the glass and Hailey screamed, jolted by the noise. Within seconds, cold air slapped her face as warm hands brushed her forehead. Billy used a tool to slice her free from her seatbelt prison. “There we go, honey. Let’s get you out. The door’s stuck. Let me help you climb through.”
“My family—what about my family?”
The guy with the ball cap peered in, meeting her eyes before turning to Billy, shaking his head. “Let’s get you out first.”
She didn’t want to leave, but she didn’t want to stay. Billy reached in as blue lights and sirens approached in the distance. She heard the faint whimper behind her and turned. Jeremy lifted his hand to his temple and winced.
“Jeremy?” Fear and relief washed through her as a tear spilled over her cheek. Was this real? Was Jeremy really moving, or did she need to believe he wasn’t going to leave her behind? Tugging out of Billy’s grip, Hailey crawled over broken glass to her brother. “Jeremy. Oh, Jeremy.” She clutched at his blood-soaked fingers. “You didn’t leave me.”
“Hailey?” Her brother stared at her, his brows furrowed.
“Yes, it’s me.”
“I want Mom.”
She glanced at her mother, who was still bleeding, still silent. Despite her own trickles of grief, her instinct to protect kicked in—the one she developed the day the social worker dropped off her badly bruised new little brother. “We’ll see mom soon.”
Jeremy touched his wound, dropped his hand, closed his eyes again.
“Jeremy?” Panicked, Hailey shook his arm. “Jeremy?”
Billy reached in, grabbed her shoulder. “Don’t shake him, honey. You don’t want to hurt him more than he already is. The fire trucks are here. The firemen will take care of him. Let’s get you out so they can help him.”
Hailey clutched at her brother, refusal on her tongue, but the man’s kind eyes and gentle voice coaxed her to put her brother’s hand back on his lap. She covered Jeremy with her blanket, moved toward the calm, encouraging voice. “That’s a girl. Come on now.” He grabbed her under the armpits, freeing her from the wreckage of the car.
Firemen rushed to her family’s vehicle, and the one still smashed into its side. Police officers spoke into radios. A paramedic crouched in front of Hailey, settled a thick blanket over her shoulders. “Are you hurt?”
“I—I don’t think so.” She glanced down at her fingers, torn and bloody from her seatbelt battle.
“Let’s get you on a stretcher anyway.” He lifted her to the bed.
Hailey stared at the mangled maroon sedan. “What about my family? Is my family going to be okay?”
“I’m not sure.” The paramedic wrapped a blood pressure cuff around her arm as a police officer walked up to the ambulance.
The officer stared into her eyes. “They’re getting your brother out now. How old is he, sweetheart?”
“He’ll be ten in March.”
“How old are you?”
“Fourteen—almost fifteen.”
“The deceased’s car is registered to a Harold and Loraine Sturgis,” the officer’s radio belched. He pressed the button and “ten-foured” dispatch.
Deceased. The word hung in the frigid air. Her parents were deceased. In her heart of hearts, she’d known, but the word gave her a truth she didn’t want to hear. Deceased changed everything. “My parents are dead.”
“Why don’t we get you down to the hospital?” the paramedic said.
Hailey grabbed the policeman’s hand before he could walk away. “My mom and dad are dead.”
He nodded. “Your parents didn’t make it.”
Foggy shock fuzzed her brain as a cooling numbness took over, a defense mechanism she’d learned many years before. She hadn’t needed the layer of protection in almost a decade, but she needed it now, so clung to it. “What will happen to me and my brother? Will they split us up? We’re foster kids.”
“I don’t know. Let’s get you to the hospital. We’ll figure things out from there.”
The firemen pulled Jeremy from the mangled car, unconscious, his neck in a brace. Why couldn’t he be okay? Why couldn’t she take his hand and run with him into the forest? Her parents were dead, the only parents she had ever known. Now they were gone.
Hailey’s veneer of cold was slipping; the crushing weight of grief was taking over. Mom and Daddy—the only people who’d ever loved her. The only people who’d given her a chance.
Jeremy was whisked into an ambulance. “Can I ride with him?”
“No. He needs to get their fast.”
Two hours later, Hailey sat behind a curtain in the ER, listening to the murmurs in the cordoned off areas around her. Booted feet stopped outside her enclosure before a hand with painted pink fingernails yanked the light blue fabric back. “Hailey Roberts?”
Hailey clammed up. The dull, overtired eyes, the cheap suit—it all screamed social worker. Ten years in the system told her she was about to be given her fate.
“You are Hailey Roberts, correct?”
“Yes. Where’s Helen? Where’s my brother?”
“Helen is away on vacation for the holidays. She’ll take over your case again once she returns next week, but in the meantime, you’re stuck with me. I’m Denise Schlotter.”
“Where’s my brother? Where’s Jeremy?”
“He’s down the hall. He just came from x-ray.”
“I want to see him.”
“You can’t right now. We’ve found you a place to stay until Helen comes back. It’s a good, Christian family. They have three young children of their own and two foster kids. They said they would be happy to have you for the time being.”
“What about Jeremy? Is he coming too?” That was all she cared about—her brother. She couldn’t lose her family. He was all she had left.
Denise glanced at her paperwork. “He has to stay here for now. He has a concussion.”
Hailey fiddled with the bandages covering her aching fingers, trying to keep her nerves at bay. “When will he come? Tomorrow? The day after?”
Denise blew out a heavy sigh. “Hailey, let’s be straight with one another here. You’ve been in the system a long time. You’ve been very lucky to have what you did. You’re a good girl. You make excellent grades. You never get in trouble. By some miracle, you’ve risen above your first four years. Your brother, however, has not. He’s a young man with several problems. Your parents have had their hands full with him.”
Instantly on the defense of her brother, Hailey sat up. “Jeremy’s making progress—that’s what his therapist said. You can’t take him away from me. We’re all each other has.” Fear clogged her throat as she saw the refusal in Denise’s dull brown eyes. Hailey cloaked her terror in anger. “If you take him away from me, he’ll only get worse. My parents would want us to be together.”
“Unfortunately, I don’t see that as an option.” Denise blew out another long breath. “Let me give you some advice. You have just over three years left in the system. You’re birthday’s next week. Play your cards straight; keep doing well in school. You might actually make something of yourself.” She gave Hailey’s shoe a pat. “Mrs. Frazier, your new fost
er parent—for the time-being—should be here soon. I need to speak with the doctor about your release. I’ll be back.”
The curtain snapped shut and she was alone. The carousel ride she’d avoided her whole life was about to begin. Her stomach clutched with nausea, not only from losing her parents—which she still couldn’t fully grasp—but from the loss of a brother who might as well be dead. What would being tossed from home to home like someone’s old trash do to him?
Hailey hopped to her feet, panicked, terrified. She had to see Jeremy, to tell him what was going on, to say goodbye before Denise told him with as little compassion as she’d told her. Lips trembling, Hailey sniffed and wiped at a tear threatening to fall. She had to be strong for him.
Hailey peeked from the side of the drab blue curtain. Denise was speaking with someone at the nurse’s station and Hailey made her escape.
Walking hurriedly down the hall, she prayed she was heading in the right direction. She gasped as the doctor who’d treated her turned the corner. Hailey whirled, rushed into the small bathroom, crossing her fingers he hadn’t noticed her.
Knees trembling, hands shaking, she twisted the lock. Closing her eyes, Hailey rested her back against the door, trying to get a grip on her shaky emotions. After three deep breaths, she still couldn’t settle.
She opened her eyes, stared at her reflection in the mirror. Her honey-colored eyes were wide with fear and sorrow. Pretty light brown ringlets hung at her shoulders. Mom had helped her curl her hair for the party.
You’re such a young lady now, Hailey, and so beautiful. I’m so lucky I have you.
Her mother had hugged her one-armed as she released the iron from a tendril of hair. Hailey choked on a gasping sob, desperately wanting that moment back.