Page 93 of The Final Faceoff
“The Crawfords.” She steps back to let a person come through and then continues. “I know the answer, of course they know. You choose them over us all the time. You told them, but you couldn’t even tell your own family?”
My throat constricts. “It’s different.”
“How?”
“Because they want to be here.” The words spill out before I can stop them, raw and way too honest.
Jules blinks, caught off guard. “And we don’t?”
This . . . I’m not ready for this conversation. I press my fingers to my temples. “You don’t understand.”
“Then make me understand.”
I swallow hard. “I didn’t want to deal with the questions. Or the judgment. Or Dad’s inevitable ‘I told you so.’” My voice drops. “I didn’t want to hear that I ruined my life.”
Jules’s face softens. “Hailey?—”
“I just—” I take a shaky breath. “I was scared, okay? Of what all of you would think. Of how everyone would react. I didn’t know how to tell you.”
Jules studies me for a long moment. Then, finally, she shakes her head.
“You’re so stupid.”
I blink. “Excuse me?”
She leans forward, pressing a hand over mine. “You’re my sister. This is your life. And yeah, Dad might have opinions with a capital O, but that doesn’t mean you have to carry them like a freaking burden.”
I let out a weak laugh. “That’s easy for you to say. He doesn’t hate you.”
“Dad doesn’t?—”
“He does,” I argue. “It’s because of me that?—”
“That was an accident,” she interrupts me.
“I know that, but he doesn’t. I’ve heard him tell the story so many times. If Hailey hadn’t?—”
“Like I told him the last time I heard him complain about that, it was a fucking accident. You were a child and he has to deal with his grief like a fucking adult.” She pauses, taking a deep breath. “You have to work on that, if not for you, for your baby.”
“You don’t blame me?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “Of course not. I would never do that. I hated that our father dropped us off at our grandparents’ because he didn’t know what to do with us, because Mom was the only one who cared for their children. Still, he made you feel like rejecting us was all your fault.”
“It was?—”
“It wasn’t, but I understand why you chose Leif and his family over us. They gave you the attention we couldn’t give you,” she concludes. “Though I thought you were over your issues. That we were close enough that you’d come to me if . . . Hailey, you’re pregnant for fuck’s sake.”
I don’t know how to answer her.
Her eyes soften. “But the most important question is, you’re happy with the baby, right?”
I swallow hard. “I think so.”
She squeezes my hand. “You know so.” Then she tilts toward the exit. “Why don’t we go for ice cream? Seems like a better way to celebrate my favorite niece, or nephew.”
And just like that, the stress of having to tell my sister is gone. There are still things I have to discuss with her, but that’s something for a later day. When I’m ready.
ChapterThirty-One
