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.
‘You can have the spare room,’ Hailey said as she led Sara down the landing. ‘I haven’t changed the bed since Ezra was in here.’
Sara picked up a pillow and breathed in the scent of her son as she sank onto the bed. The prospect of being separated from her children hit her then, a pain so raw it ripped through her heart.
‘You’ve got to help me, Hailey. Matt won’t let me back home. I know he won’t. He’s so black-and-white about everything and you can’t argue with that video on the face of it. He won’t let me explain. And if he knows about James, well… he’s not going to believe our relationship is innocent, is he?’
Hailey sat next to her on the bed. ‘Maybe James isn’t innocent, though. You haven’t watched the whole video, have you?’
Sara clutched the pillow to her chest, eyes wide at the thought. ‘You think there might have been more than one man?’
Hailey put an arm round her shoulder, dipped her head so she could look Sara in the eye. ‘We’re going to have to watch the whole thing, so we know exactly what happened to you. Then tomorrow we go to the police.’
Sara pulled away, horrified at the thought. ‘I can’t do that! Don’t you understand? If the police are involved, everything will come out about me stealing the money. I’ll end up in prison.’
Hailey grimaced. ‘Oh God, I hadn’t thought of that. What a bloody mess!’
‘And there’s more.’
Hailey looked worried. ‘What more can there possibly be?’
Sara squeezed the pillow harder. ‘I think this contract of Matt’s involves something illegal. He says it’s to do with writing code, and what his client does with that isn’t his business.’
Hailey puffed out her cheeks. ‘I suppose he could be right there. Technically. If he says he doesn’t know what they want it for.’
‘But you understand I can’t have the police sniffing round our business for any number of reasons. I’ve got to sort this out myself.’
Hailey nodded, thoughtful. ‘Okay, I see your point, but I’m not sure I agree. You know there are mitigating circumstances. The money you took hasn’t technically gone anywhere, so the community centre hasn’t lost out.’ She shrugged. ‘Has a crime been committed?’ She was quiet for a moment, thinking. ‘I’m not sure how they would view it, to be honest. But filming people without their consent is definitely a crime. Drugging and molesting women is definitely a crime. And who knows what else happened to you?’
Sara thought back to her weekend, her body trembling at the thought of someone having sex with her while she was unconscious. Her stomach lurched, bile shooting up her throat, acrid on the back of her tongue. She closed her eyes, pushed the images away. ‘I don’t… I don’t think I was raped.’ She turned to her sister. ‘You’d know, wouldn’t you?’ She sounded uncertain, her voice wavering as she thought about how grubby she’d felt when she woke up. Sweaty and sticky and… She shuddered and wrapped her arms round her chest, hugging herself tight.
Hailey nodded. ‘I suppose you would.’ But she didn’t sound sure.
They sat in silence, absorbing the implications. Sara was determined she wasn’t going to discuss it any further because… what if… She started speaking to rid her mind of the horrible pictures, the appalling possibilities. ‘I want to go home. I can’t be separated from my kids. I can’t.’
Hailey gave her arm a reassuring rub. ‘How about I try and talk to Matt for you? See if I can smooth things over.’
Sara considered her suggestion. ‘Why not? He seems to have warmed to you recently.’
Hailey made no response, ignoring the implied question in her comment. Instead she pulled Sara into a sudden hug. ‘You really know how to sabotage yourself, don’t you, sis? Honestly, you had it all. But it wasn’t enough, was it?’ She sighed. ‘That’s you all over, always wanting the next thing. You were like that as a kid. Never wanted the toys you had, always wanted the thing you couldn’t afford.’ She pulled back, a hand on Sara’s shoulder, and gave her a determined smile. ‘We’ll get it sorted, don’t you worry.’
But Sara was worried. Because the only way to sort this out was to watch the video. She couldn’t challenge James until she knew what had actually happened. That was the reality. Her skin crawled. She clasped Hailey’s hand, grateful that she had at least one person she could rely on.
Hailey went downstairs and got Sara’s phone, brought it up to the bedroom. They held hands as they sat next to each other and Sara pressed play. Two different men, neither of them James. Just less than half an hour each. The only good thing about it was there was no evidence of rape. Fondling, caressing and everything else you might like to do to someone. One man spent a good fifteen minutes sucking her toes and licking her feet.
‘It could have been worse,’ Sara said when the video finished and she switched the phone off, trying to diminish the effect it’d had on her. Not wanting to allow these men to have taken anything from her, to have broken her. But her skin itched to be washed, crawling with the ghostly touch of their fingers.
‘Two of them. Bloody hell,’ Hailey whispered, sounding as stunned as Sara felt.
‘Neither of them was James, which makes me wonder if he was filming it.’ Nausea stirred the contents of Sara’s stomach, and she ran down the landing into the bathroom, hugging the toilet bowl as she spewed up her last meal. Strangers taking advantage of her when she was unconscious. Filming and sharing it. Once again, bile burned the back of her throat as she heaved and heaved until there was nothing left.