Page 82 of Malicious Marriage
A sharp noise of anger rises from Dean behind me, but it doesn’t make a difference. I’m transfixed on Hailey. “How can you say that?” My heart pounds faster and faster. “We were like two peas in a pod and then Dad died and we were all alone and then a week later, I was all alone because you were gone, and Malcom was acting like he got rid of you! I’ve spent years searching for you, terrified that you were actually dead and all I was going to find were your bones!”
“Don’t be so dramatic,” Hailey scoffs.
“I think it’s time you explained what the hell is going on,” Dean says tightly. “I’m not here for games.”
“I wasn’t sold, okay?” Hailey rests one hand on her hip as she finally stops pacing. “I wasn’t kidnapped. I wasn’t sold. I wasn’t lost. I wasn’t… anything.”
No. No, that can’t be. That can’t be true. “Then what?”
“I…” Hailey sighs deeply and glances at the barman in the corner. “I ran away. With Duke.” She waves her other hand toward the thickly-bearded barman.
Duke lifts one hand and waves awkwardly.
“You…” I squint, unable to decipher what she said. It’s like she’s speaking in another language. “What?”
“I ran away, okay? I had to. I thought you, of all people, would have understood and just left me to it.”
I’m utterly speechless. My mind is just indecipherable noise as I try to wrap my thoughts around what she’s saying while she continues.
“Malcom wanted to marry me. Because of course he did. The sicko only had dollar signs in his eye after Dad died and I was the one standing in the way. Without me, he didn’t have access to the family or the estate so he wanted us to tie the knot. He toldme so at Dad’s funeral like it was something I was supposed to beexcitedabout.” Her lip curls. “But I was already in love with someone else.”
Hailey and Duke look at one another, and the anger briefly fades from her face.
“But Duke is from a Russian family and we both know Father never would have agreed to let us marry, so his dying only moved up plans that were already in motion.”
Tears slowly begin to build in my eyes as I struggle to process what’s coming out of Hailey’s mouth. “You never told me any of this. Why wouldn’t you tell me? Why would youleaveme and let me think you were dead, or worse? Sisters don’t do that to one another! You were my best friend!”
“And that was the problem!” Hailey snaps sharply. “You were suffocating, Clover. Everything always had to be about us doing stuff together, going places together, watching shit together. Every weekend you were planning things, you texted me constantly, called me when I was late home. You were more smothering than Dad!”
An eerie silence follows her last words as everything I thought about my close, loving relationship with my older sister starts to crumble.
“I did what I had to do.” Hailey’s voice trembles slightly as she lifts her chin. “And I don’t regret it.”
Duke moves forward a step, but he’s visibly uncertain as his eyes haven’t moved from Dean ever since the revelation that he’s from a Russian family.
“Didn’t you worry that Malcom would want to marry me instead?” I ask hoarsely as Hailey’s body blurs through my tears.
She laughs, and it’s like a knife to the stomach. “I knew you weren’t his type,” she says. “He likes skinny and tall, so even if he did marry you, you wouldn’t be in the same disgusting danger I was in.”
Is this real? Did I pass out from too much stress and now I’m caught in some horrific nightmare? Did I really just spend the past four long, debt-filled years trying to rescue a sister who doesn’t care about me? Who apparentlynevercared about me?
“You said four years.” Dean’s voice cuts through my tumbling thoughts like a hot blade. “I thought you vanished six months ago?”
“Six months?” Hailey laughs coldly. “Is that what she told you? No, I left the day after we buried Dad. Six days after his death. So we’re actually closer to five years now, considering.”
I have to look at Dean. Everything inside me screams not to because I know what I will see there, but I have to look at him. Turning, what remains of my heart breaks all over again as visible hurt and confusion work their way across Dean’s frowning face. “Four years…?”
“Dean—”
“You spun some pathetic lie again, Clover, didn’t you?” Hailey scoffs and drags my attention back to her. “Even as a kid, you never learned when to stop. All these little lies for attention. It was always pathetic.”
“I’m pathetic?” I snap suddenly, blinking hard so the tears clear and roll down my cheeks. “You’re the one who left! I’ve spent every day since then trying to track you down andrescueyou while the family falls apart and my life crumbles! All to save you!”
“I didn’t need saving!” Hailey throws her hands up in exasperation. “I left! I was happy. Duke and I ran for the hills as soon as we could and I wish with all my heart that you'd just accepted that and never fucking came looking. Why couldn’t you leave it alone?”
Why couldn’t I? Why did it never cross my mind that Hailey left willingly?
“Speaking of,” Duke says quietly. “How did you manage to find us?”