Hailey's Truth Read Free

sleeping face angelic and pale.
    Hailey stepped forward, gathering her strength. She touched Jeremy’s warm little hand and his lids fluttered opened.
    “Sissy?”
    She smiled, brushing the hair from his forehead. “Hi.” How would she say goodbye? How would she tell him they couldn’t be together anymore?
    “I can’t move my head.” He tugged at the brace.
    “The doctors are keeping your neck safe. It’ll be okay.” She stared into Jeremy’s chocolate brown eyes, shades darker than her own, and his light beige complexion, so much like hers. If only they shared blood, the State would keep them together.
    “Where’s Mom and Daddy, Hailey?” Jeremy clutched at her sore, bandaged fingers. “My head hurts. I want mom and daddy.”
    She twisted the pretty pearl ring on her finger—the heirloom their mother had given her for her fourteenth birthday—desperate for the right words, willing their mother to send them to her. Mom had always known just what to say. “Mom and Daddy had to go away. They had to go to heaven and be angels.”
    Tears leaked from the side of Jeremy’s eyes, coursing into the bandages wrapped around his head. “I want them to come back.”
    “They can’t. They have to stay there.”
    Jeremy’s lips trembled. “I’m scared.”
    “Me too.” She had no choice but to admit it.
    “I want to go home. When can we go home?”
    “We can’t go home anymore, Jeremy. We have to live somewhere else now.”
    Wild terror filled his eyes as he tried to sit up. “I want to go home .”
    Hailey held him down. “We can’t. We’re going to live with different families. They’ll be nice to us and help us, just like Mom and Daddy.” She desperately wanted to believe it.
    Jeremy started to wail. Hailey ran over and shut the glass slider. If they found her in here, they would make her leave. She hurried back, shushing Jeremy, trying to be patient. They didn’t have much time. “Hush now, Jeremy.” She stroked at his forehead again. “I have a plan, but you need to quiet down and listen.”
    Jeremy’s crying turned into gasps of unsteady air. “Okay.”
    “We have to go away from each other for awhile.”
    He clutched her fingers again.
    “I’m going to come back for you when I turn eighteen. That’s not too long from now. When I turn eighteen, I’ll find you and take you away. But you need to be good. You have to stop doing bad stuff at school and try hard. Mom and daddy are going to be watching you from heaven and they want you to be a good boy. It’ll make it harder for me to get you if you don’t behave. Do you understand?”
    “Yes. But I’m going to miss you.”
    “I’m going to miss you too, but I’ll think of you every day. I’ll never stop loving you. I won’t forget you; I promise.” She hooked her pinky with his. “I promise I won’t forget you. I promise I’m going to come get you. Do you believe me?”
    He sniffed. “Yes.”
    “Good.” She kissed his lips, then tried to smile.
    The glass door slid open. Hailey whipped a glance over her shoulder.
    “There you are, Hailey. I was afraid you’d run off.” Denise stood next to a tall, thin woman with black hair and a dower face. She clutched a maroon bible in her bony left hand.
    Her time was up. Hailey ignored the tired looking women and turned her attention back to her brother. “I have to go, Jeremy. Remember my promise.”
    Jeremy began to sob as he held her arm in a vise-like grip. Desperate to give comfort, frantic to stay, she stared down at her ring. It was her only link to Loraine, the only mother she would ever have, but she took it off. “Here. I want you to have this. This will help you remember me. Every time you look at it, think of me and know I’m thinking of you. Don’t forget that I’m coming for you. I love you, Jeremy.”
    “I love you, too.”
    “It’s time to go, Hailey.” Denise wrapped her arm around Hailey’s shoulder, tugging against the strength of the determined and