With her heart pounding, she leant against the door, listening to the footsteps thundering up the stairs. If Hailey wouldn’t let her stay, she had nowhere else to go. Her chest heaved. What am I going to do?

Chapter Twenty-Five

Sara’s entire body rattled as Hailey pounded on the door.

‘Come out of there, Sara! I don’t want you in my house. I thought you were better than this.’

‘You need to listen to me!’ Sara had to shout to make herself heard over the thudding of Hailey’s fists. ‘Just let me tell you the whole story and then you can judge me.’

‘You can’t stay in the bathroom. Why don’t you come out, then I can hear you?’

Sara huffed. ‘I’m staying here.’ She slid to the floor, adrenaline pumping round her body, the sound of her pulse whooshing in her ears. ‘But you’ve got to let me speak.’

Silence.

‘Okay,’ Hailey said eventually, a weariness in her voice. ‘Don’t you go lying to me, though. I want the truth.’

Sara took a deep breath and told her sister everything. About losing her inheritance, stealing the money to help Matt start his business, being found out, feeling cornered into accepting James’s offer, her debt and everything that had happened since.

When she’d finished, she felt spent, her stupidity, her bad choices so apparent now she’d laid it all out. It was a while before Hailey finally spoke.

‘Well, you need to talk to James, don’t you? He’s obviously the one behind everything. He took you to that place.’

‘But that’s not him in the picture. That’s the part that doesn’t make sense.’

‘Doesn’t mean he didn’t set it up. Do you think he drugged you?’

Sara thought about their evenings together, how quickly she’d seemed to get drunk, how fast she’d fallen asleep, the way her clothes were so neatly tidied away that first night with no recollection of taking them off. A cold chill of realisation brought goose bumps to her skin.

‘I think maybe he did.’ Sudden tears caught in her throat, sobs heaving in her chest. ‘Oh Hailey, what have I done?’

‘It’s not your fault you were drugged and bloody molested.’ Hailey sounded indignant now, finally understanding that Sara was telling the truth. ‘Look, open the door. Then we can talk properly.’

Sara reached up and turned the lock, then hauled herself to her feet. When she opened the door, Hailey held out her arms for a hug and Sara clung to her as she cried, Hailey rubbing her back until the tears finally stopped. She let go of her sister, accepting the toilet roll Hailey grabbed for her to blow her nose and wipe her face, feeling completely spent.