Serenity (Inevitable Book 5)

by Janet Nissenson

  “Sweetheart.” He massaged the back of his neck, feeling the muscles there already beginning to bunch up with tension. “I know there’s no possible way I can make this up to you, and you should definitely be very, very angry with me right now. And I know I’ve had to say this way too often as of late, but I’m so sorry, Sasha.”

  She gave a little sniffle, obviously struggling to gain control of her emotions. “I know you are,” she told him quietly. “But that doesn’t make this any easier. You’d better go, I won’t keep you any longer.”

  “Wait.” He forestalled her before she could end the call. “Look, why don’t you still go out to dinner and then the ballet? I’ll call the restaurant and give them my credit card, you can order whatever you like. And I’ll have the tickets messengered over to you on my way out. The concierge can take care of that. I realize it isn’t the same thing, but maybe you could ask Julio or Chad to go with you. That way you can still enjoy your evening.”

  “You’re right. It’s not the same thing at all,” she chastised him. “And Chad and Julio are in Las Vegas this weekend at a wedding. But I suppose I could ask one of the other teachers from the studio if she’d like to go to the ballet with me. She used to study ballet so she’d probably be interested. Not the dinner, though. That was supposed to be something special for us. I don’t want to go if you’re not with me.”

  “We’ll go another time,” he promised. “I swear to you, Sasha. And I will make this up to you, one way or the other. Look, you’re right, I do need to go, but I’ll make sure these tickets get delivered to you within the hour.” He paused briefly before telling her in a husky voice, “I love you so much, Sasha. I hope you know that.”

  “I do, yes. Good night, Matthew.”

  She ended the call without echoing his sentiments,, and the disappointment in her voice was so heart wrenching that this time he wasn’t able to suppress his anger and frustration as he hurled his phone against the wall.

  “It’s about goddamned time you got here. Once again you’ve forced me to deal with all of this crap by myself.”

  Matthew didn’t even spare his enraged ex a glance as he walked inside the foyer of the house. “In case you’ve forgotten, I’m not here for you,” he retorted, walking briskly in the direction of Hayley’s room.

  Lindsey, however, stayed right on his heels, not an easy task considering that even inside the house she insisted on tottering around on those ridiculous stilettos. He wondered vaguely if she’d been getting ready for a night on the town, given her attire of short, tight black skirt, sheer gauzy white blouse, and wearing so much makeup that his fingernails would come away filthy if he raked them down her cheek.

  Hayley’s bedroom was an untidy mess as usual, but Matthew figured that was the least of her problems at this point. She was curled up in a fetal position on her bed, a fleecy throw pulled up nearly over her head, and her eyes were red and puffy from crying. She glanced up as he entered, and gave him a watery smile.

  “Hi, Daddy,” she whispered miserably, holding out her arms to him.

  As he eased himself onto the bed and pulled her into a hug, it occurred to him that Hayley hadn’t called him Daddy in years, probably not since her tenth birthday when she’d decided that wasn’t cool anymore, and wondered for a moment at the timing of this sudden change.

  “Hey, baby,” he murmured instead, stroking his daughter’s long, silky hair. “You doing okay?”

  Hayley shrugged. “Not really, no. This has been kind of a shock, you know?”

  Matthew gave a short, sardonic laugh. “Yeah, no kidding. I didn’t even know you had a boyfriend, Hayley. Have you told him that you’re pregnant? And who is this guy anyway? Your mother and I are going to need to get his parents involved, figure this whole situation out between us.”

  “No!” exclaimed Hayley. “Dad, no! I - I mean, oh, God, this is going to sound so awful, I’m not even sure how to say this. But I don’t - oh, God - ”

  “What she’s trying to say,” interjected Lindsey tersely, “is that she doesn’t know who the father is. You don’t think I’ve been trying to pry a name out of her since I found that damned test, Matt?”

  Matthew stared at his daughter in horror. “What does your mother mean you don’t know who the father is? Jesus, how many boys have you had sex with, Hayley - two, three, more?”

  Hayley’s pale cheeks reddened. “This is so embarrassing,” she groaned, burying her face in her hands. “Do we really have to talk about this now?”

  “We sure as hell do!” boomed Matthew. “I told you, young lady, that I was going to insist on having answers to all of my questions tonight. There is no way you’re going to wheedle your way out of this. Now, tell your mother and I who the potential father - or should I say fathers - of this baby are.”

  “I don’t know their names,” replied Hayley reluctantly. “And I’m not even sure what they look like. I met them at a party, had never seen them before, and haven’t seen them since. I’m don’t think they’re from around here.”

  Matthew struggled mightily to keep his temper in check as he prodded further. “What party? When was this exactly?”

  “About six weeks ago. And, well, I’m not exactly sure where the party was either. I mean,” she added hastily at her father’s look of disbelief, “I didn’t notice where we were driving to. And Brianne didn’t remember either. It was dark and raining outside, and no streetlights so neither one of us know where the house was. Somewhere up in the hills, maybe Los Gatos or Saratoga, around there. I don’t really know that area very well, and it might not even have been there for all I know and - ”

  Matthew held up a hand. “Stop. You’re rambling on and on and not making a lick of sense. First of all, who’s Brianne?”

  “She’s Hayley’s new friend,” explained Lindsey. “She and her older brother just transferred to the school this semester, and since Hayley has a big crush on the brother she’s sort of latched onto Brianne.”

  “Is he the one who got you pregnant?” demanded Matthew.

  Hayley shook her head emphatically. “God, no! He’s a senior, two years older than I am, and doesn’t even know I exist half the time. But supposedly he was going to be at this one party that Brianne convinced me to attend, only he wasn’t there after all. And, well, that party turned out to be a big dud, so when Brianne met these two older guys there who said they knew where a real party was going on, we went with them.”

  Matthew closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose as he felt a headache coming on fast. “And you have no idea where this other party was, hmm?”

  “No. We, uh, might have had a few beers at the first party, and smoked a joint,” she confessed sheepishly. “So I was already kind of out of it during the drive. And all I remember about the second party was one of the guys who brought us giving me a drink. Next thing I know we’re waking up in Brianne’s room the next morning, and neither of us can remember how we got there.”

  He counted to ten beneath his breath, trying desperately to quell his mounting rage. “Are you trying to tell me,” he asked in a dangerously low voice, “that you were date raped and haven’t said a word about it until now? My God, Hayley, what the hell were you thinking?”

  Hayley quavered in fear at this uncharacteristic display of anger from her normally placid father. “I - I guess I didn’t think of it that way,” she answered in a small voice. “Being raped, that is. I don’t even remember any of it, to be honest.”

  “Of course you don’t.” Matthew exhaled sharply, shaking his head in disbelief. “Because those bastards drugged you, and then did whatever the hell they wanted while you were unconscious. Did they hurt you, baby?”

  Hayley shrugged. “Not really. I mean, I had an awful headache after and was sick to my stomach. So was Brianne. But I didn’t have any bruises or anything like that, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  “Why in God’s name didn’t you tell someone what happened, Hayley?” he a
sked incredulously. “If you had said something right away one of us could have called the police, taken you in for an examination. They would have taken a blood test, figured out what sort of drug you were given, and might have been able to track down those bastards. Or at least where this party took place. What about the first party you went to? Did you ask anyone who attended if they knew who these two guys were?”

  “Oh my God, Dad - no!” exclaimed Hayley, horror-stricken. “You really think that Brianne and I are going to admit to all of our friends that we were stupid enough to go off with some strangers and let ourselves get drugged? Do you have any idea what people would have said about us, the gossip that would have gone around? Brianne and I haven’t even talked about it since that morning, we agreed it was best to pretend it never happened.”

  “Well, you can’t exactly do that any longer, can you?” retorted Matthew. “Did these rapists have a first name? And what sort of car were they driving?”

  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.”

  “Matt, not now, okay?” interjected Lindsey, who’d remained largely silent until now. “It’s been a rough day for Hayley, and I think we should give her some space now. You’re just upsetting her more by pushing this issue with the police. And I hate to say it, but it’s not going to do any good at this point. It will just make you and I look like irresponsible parents, not knowing where our daughter was that night, or having her feel that she could trust us enough with the truth.”

  “Fine.” Matthew threw up his hands in frustration. “I’ll drop that part of it for now. But we still need to discuss this whole pregnancy issue, what you plan on doing about it. First of all, have you been to a doctor? Or are you just assuming you’re pregnant based on the home test you took?”

  Hayley glanced back and forth between her parents uncertainly. “Um, no. I - I haven’t been to the doctor yet. Mom’s going to make an appointment for me on Monday. But I’m positive that I’m pregnant, Dad. I’ve felt sick to my stomach and tired and all the other symptoms. And it wasn’t just the one test. This is the third one I used and they’ve all been positive.”

  “Okay.” He nodded. “Now, what do you intend to do about this? Your mother said that you were actually thinking of having the baby? Under the circumstances, Hayley, wouldn’t you prefer to - ”

  “Have an abortion?” she burst out. “No, I don’t want to do that, Daddy. I want to have the baby and raise it myself.”

  “What?” Matthew was both shocked and horrified at this revelation. “Hayley, you can’t mean that. For God’s sake, you’re sixteen years old and can barely look out for yourself. How in the world are you going to take care of a baby? You still need to finish high school, and then go to college. And you won’t have the baby’s father to help out. I can understand why you wouldn’t want to have an abortion, but surely adoption would be a much better solution. They have open adoptions these days, so you would know who the parents are and could keep in touch with them, still be a part of the baby’s life. Don’t you think that would be a much better idea?”

  Hayley shook her head stubbornly. “No, that’s not what I want. I don’t want to give my baby away. And we’re rich, we can hire a nanny or someone to look after the baby while I’m at school.”

  “Honey, I really think you’re oversimplifying this whole thing,” cautioned Matthew. “You have no idea what’s involved with raising a child. And you’re so young, Hayley. I can’t imagine
that you’d want to tie yourself down this way. I really, really think you need to give this some very careful thought and weigh your options more closely.”

  “That’s exactly what I’ve been telling her,” interjected Lindsey. “She’s going to ruin her life if she has this baby. I have no idea how she’s going to keep this hidden from her friends, or what kind of social life she can have with a baby. You should listen to your father, Hayley, and either terminate the pregnancy or give the baby up for adoption.”

  “No!” Hayley shook her head stubbornly. “You can’t force me to do either of those things, Mom, in spite of what you told me earlier. Can I talk to Dad privately now?”

  Lindsey glared at her daughter. “Fine. But if you somehow manage to convince him to let you have this baby, then he’d damn well better be prepared to do his part in helping to raise it. Because if you think you’re going to dump a baby on me to raise, young lady, then think again.”

  Lindsey stormed out of the room, her heels clicking in a fast, furious patter on the wood floors. Hayley waited until her mother was out of earshot, then turned to Matthew with a look of desperation on her face.

  “Daddy, you’ve got to help me!” she pleaded. “Mom has been having a fit ever since she found out I was pregnant, and she keeps saying she’s either going to force me to have an abortion or ship me off to some school or home where I can have the baby in secret and then have it adopted. Please don’t let her do that, please?”

  “Shh, it’s okay,” soothed Matthew, as Hayley flung himself into his arms. “I promise I won’t let her force you into anything. We’ll work through this together, all right? It’s going to be a family decision, Hayley, and we’ll consider all the options.”

  She nodded, burrowing her head against his chest. “I knew you’d stick up for me, Daddy. Mom has been so horrible to live with ever since you left, you have no idea. She’s mean and selfish and hardly ever here. But she says she won’t let me go live with you, especially since you have a girlfriend now, says that her lawyer would file some sort of order to prevent me and Casey from moving in with you. Can she really do that?”