Chapter 93

Hailey walked through the restaurant doors with a growing sense of trepidation. The winter break was almost over but she had one more thing she wanted to accomplish before she headed back to Heilman.

She felt Phil’s strong hand on her back and she looked up at him gratefully. The past few days had been trying for the young woman but he had been a rock for her the entire time. His support had never wavered but he had never tried to force her into any action. He had let her arrive at her decisions in her own time, offering his counsel whenever she’d asked.

Now the time was here and she was scared.

The brown-haired man stood up almost as soon as Hailey had passed through the doors and she recognized him immediately – her father. He looked different than the last time she’d seen him – more than a decade in the past. She had almost forgotten what he looked like but one glimpse brought back a host of memories. He stood as she and Phil approached the table. Phil could see that man wanted to extend his arms toward his daughter but he refrained. No one could mistake the smile on his face for anything but sincere.

“It’s great to see you!” he said.

“This is my boyfriend, Philip,” Hailey said. Phil extended his hand and Michael Warren shook it eagerly.

“Wonderful to meet you,” the lawyer said. Again, Phil thought the guy was telling the truth. He pulled out his girlfriend’s chair and Hailey sat. Phil took a seat beside her and looked across the table at Hailey’s father.

The first few minutes were spent with Hailey asking about her father’s job and his life. She began to relate her life after he’d left but he stopped her.

“I know all that,” Michael said. “I went to your spelling bee when you were in fourth grade. I was so proud of you. I’d had almost 20 years of schooling and I couldn’t spell ‘esoteric.’”

“You went to my spelling bee?” Hailey asked incredulously.

“Your spelling bee, your social studies fair, your cheer competitions,” Michael told her as he pulled out his wallet and passed two pictures across. The first was Hailey’s senior portrait and she wore a prom gown in the other.

“I bought a yearbook from your prep school so I could cut that picture out,” Michael said ruefully. “I got the prom picture from the parents of the boy you went with. I’ve done my best to keep up with you, Hailey. I knew all about your internship at Barton last summer. I was really proud of you. I’m sure you learned a lot from Elizabeth Barton-Warner.”

“You know Elizabeth?” Hailey asked. She fought the urge to glance at Phil.

“Only by reputation,” Michael said. “I’ve heard a lot of good things about her. I hope you learned more from her than just business sense. I know she has a wonderful family.”

“So you know her family?” Hailey asked sharply.

“I met her husband once,” Michael said, choosing to ignore his daughter’s tone. “He was really nice.”

“You’ve met David?” Hailey pressed.

“That is his name!” Michael told her. “I’ve only met him the one time. You’ve met him too – I mean if you didn’t meet him last summer. You were just about to finish second grade. We were going to Children’s Day at Municipal Park. David and his son were in front of us for tickets. He was solo that day, too, and he and I struck up a conversation. We decided that tag-team babysitting was in order since there were thousands of kids running around. It was really fun. You spent the whole day with his son, riding rides and eating cotton candy. That’s one of my best memories, Hailey. We spent two more weekends together after that and then ... well, you know. Christ, I can’t remember the son’s name either.”

Hailey looked across the table at her father.

“His name is Philip,” she said.

Michael Warren looked from his daughter to her boyfriend – and then he smiled broadly.

“That is wonderful!” he said in a bright voice. “I had never seen two kids take to one another like you two did. I had David’s number and I planned to see if he wanted to plan another outing. It was so nice to see you happy and so at ease. I’m really glad you two reconnected. Your mother must be excited as can be.”

“I think Mother’s excitement has been tempered somewhat,” Hailey said. There were so many things she wanted to ask her father but she wasn’t sure how to begin. She also wasn’t sure she really wanted to know the answers.

“I read that the company she worked for was being bought out by Barton,” Michael said with a shrug. “I don’t mean to speak ill of your mom but she was always upwardly mobile. I figured that since you were dating the CEO’s son, she was like a cat in the cream.”

“Mother lost her job last March – before Phil and I started to date,” Hailey said, frowning. “I haven’t spoken to her in several months.”

She filled Michael in on the relevant details of Hannah Kramer’s fall from grace and the man sat dumbfounded across from her when Hailey told him about Hannah’s attempt to pawn her belongings.

“Phil and I drove out there two days ago,” Hailey said. “I decided that I wanted to put all the ghosts from my past away. That part of my life is over and I’m not the same person I used to be. I was willing to be the bigger person and make the first move. I found out that she made the first move. When we got to the house, someone new lived there. She had left and they had no forwarding address.”

“My firm has some good investigators if you want to locate her,” Michael offered.

“Phil’s family has a stake in a security firm and they offered the same thing,” Hailey told him. “I’ve decided that she has my number and my email address. I called her twice over the summer and now I’ve visited her. The next move is hers.”

“I understand,” Michael said with a nod. “If you change your mind, let me know. I’ll help you however I can. I hope you know that.”

“And how would I know that?” Hailey asked bitterly. “You disappeared like a thief in the night when I was seven years old and I haven’t heard a word from you since. Outside of the fact that you apparently stalked me through high school, all I know about you is that you sent me a card for Christmas every year and a check for my college fund when I turned 18.”

Michael’s face clouded as Hailey spoke and his mouth dropped. He shook his head as if in denial.

“No,” he said. “That’s not true. Hailey, first off, I didn’t send you money on your birthday. I never did. I would look around for a present and send that to you. I contributed to your college fund each year but never as part of a gift. Look, what do you remember from our last times together?”

“Almost nothing!” Hailey seethed. Phil reached over and put his hand on hers. She clasped his hand tightly.

Michael let out a long breath and gritted his teeth.

“Our last visit, just before you turned eight, we went camping,” Michael said.

“I remember that,” Hailey said with a frown.

“Yeah, you hated it,” Michael said, smiling in spite of himself. “It rained and it was really cold. Your sleeping bag got soaked.”

“Yeah,” Hailey said absently, “the roof of the tent leaked right over top of me.”

“I gave you my sleeping bag, do you remember that?” Michael inquired. It was Hailey’s turn to smile.

“You slept on the cold floor of the tent,” she said with a nod.

“Yep,” Michael said. “I did. Only, well, I don’t think that got passed along to your mother.”

“I never told her anything about that,” Hailey cut in. “I don’t think she even asked. She was planning her third marriage and she didn’t really have time for me.”

“Well, someone must have said something,” Michael said bitterly. “She called me a week later and told me that you said I had touched you inappropriately. She said that if I didn’t stop visiting you, she was going to contact the police. I couldn’t figure out why you’d say that. Then I wondered if I’d actually done something that made you uncomfortable. The second bothered me a lot more than the first. I told her that if I’d done something, it was unintentional. I knew that an investigation would ruin your life – and probably mine, too.

“Even if you recanted your statement or I was proven innocent, it would follow us forever. I agreed to stop the visits so long as I could still send you letters and with the proviso that you be allowed to resume the visits if you felt comfortable. I’ve sent a letter with every single card, Hailey, asking you to contact me if you felt comfortable so we could discuss this. When you turned 18, I didn’t send you money. I sent you the locket you’d picked out for your eighth birthday. I asked you to contact me now that you were an adult so we could talk. I wrote that I was sure that whatever happened was a misunderstanding and that I wanted to know exactly what I’d done so I could explain things to you. I still don’t know what I did!”

Hailey was staring silently across the table, confused by what her father had told her.

“If I had to bet, you didn’t do anything,” Phil interjected. “From what I know of Hailey’s mother I would guess she figured out a way to force you out of Hailey’s life and took it. The fact that the camping incident happened wasn’t relevant. Hannah wanted to get what she wanted and this was one surefire way to make it happen. I’m certain you didn’t stop playing child support.”

“Of course not,” Michael said.

“But your alimony was probably through,” Phil continued. “Hailey said you divorced her mother when she was three. Five years is the usual term of alimony for a marriage shorter than 10 years. From what I understand, eight years old is when the courts take the children’s wishes into account when determining custody.”

“And I had filed a modification a month earlier,” Michael said with a grimace. “Damn it! Why didn’t I see that?”

“Again, if I had to guess, you were too worried that you might have done something to harm Hailey – or your career,” Phil said. “I don’t know you well enough to guess which one you worried about most.”

“To hell with my career,” Michael said firmly. “I can find another career.”

“So you didn’t just walk away from me?” Hailey asked in a small voice.

“No,” Michael said, tears coming to his eyes. “I thought you hated me. I thought I had said or done something that you misunderstood. You have to understand, Hailey, that was a terrible time. There had been a series of high-profile molestation cases in the news. Any male who so much as smiled at a child was considered a pedophile. Parents were having a daily discussion with their children about ‘good touch, bad touch.’ I had that conversation with you several times, asking if anyone had ever touched you in a sexual way or tried to entice you into doing something that made you uncomfortable.

“When Hannah told me that you were traumatized, it almost killed me. I spent months going over every minute of our last visit. The only thing I could think of was the fact that, uh ... We’re adults so I’ll just say it. I was in my normal state when you found out the tent leaked. I, uh, I was erect.”

“Not because I was in the tent with you but because that always happens when I sleep,” Michael added quickly. “I thought you might have noticed my condition and misunderstood it.”

“Fuck,” Hailey said bitterly. She shook her head and stared off in the distance.

“I ... I always hoped you would someday forgive me for whatever I did,” Michael said, looking at the tabletop. “Every Saturday morning I would call the house and see if you would speak to me. I did that for almost a year. Your Mom said I was causing you further trauma. When I got a letter from your therapist telling me the same thing, I finally stopped.”

“My therapist?” Hailey asked, her eyes wide. “I didn’t see any sort of counselor until last year – and that was to try to undo the damage that bitch of a mother did to me.”

“I talked to him,” Michael said. “That’s the main reason I let things go. It had to be right after Christmas. I sent you a card with a letter and a pair of shamrock earrings. You had gotten your ears pierced that spring and you loved shamrocks. When I called on Christmas morning, your Mom said you still refused to speak to me and that you’d thrown the earrings away. A few days later, I got a letter from ... let me think ... Reginald Olsen. That’s it. Olsen. The letter said my continued attempts to contact you were causing setbacks in your therapy and he said it would be best for you if I stopped. I still have the letter in the files.

“I called him – to see if he would tell me what I’d done. He wouldn’t. He said it would violate patient confidentiality. I continued to press him until he agreed to suggest that, at some point, you either write to me or call me to tell me how I’d hurt you. Of course, you never did. That’s why I was so excited yesterday when you called the office.”

“Dad, I didn’t call you because this is complete and utter bullshit!” Hailey spat. “I never once saw a therapist until after I went to college. Reggie Olsen is some quack Mom started fucking after she dumped her third husband – a record three months after they were married. That’s who you talked to. He never once saw me as a patient and I’m not positive he ever said more than 10 words to me. He couldn’t tell you what you’d done to hurt me because you didn’t do anything. Mom played us both. She convinced me that you had decided to move on without me. She convinced you that I wanted nothing to do with you. Neither one was true. She just didn’t want to see me happy!”

“I’m sure that’s not true,” Michael said consolingly.

“I’m sure it is!” Hailey raged. “Do you know why you could never talk to me on Saturday mornings? Because every Friday night, I got shipped off to Grandma and Grandpa’s – or as I like to refer to it these days, The Indoctrination Center. She wanted to raise me to turn out just like she did – just like her father raised her to be. You never would have let that happen. I remember you correcting me. I even remember going to the carnival with Phil – although I didn’t remember it was him. You and I had fun but we also had limits. I couldn’t just act like a little bitch without expecting punishment. That’s what she did to me! She turned me into a ... correct me if I’m wrong, Phil. She turned me into a ‘blazing two-faced bitch!’”

Phil bit his lip to keep from smiling. The situation was too serious for levity.

“When I see her again, I’m going to snap her fucking neck!” Hailey said. Her anger was not abating in the slightest.