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Hailey laughed Maybe she shouldn’t He was talking about Annie and To hiht, Toly comic

Calluh in the midst of the ed with grief ‘Good sympathetic ear you are,’ he mocked

Hailey tried to model her face into instant contrition and failed ‘I’m sorry’

Callum chuckled ‘It’s OK Really People have tiptoed around me for six years It’s nice to be with so’

‘Thank you’ She frowned ‘I think’

He laughed again ‘So what about you, Hailey Winters? What’s your story? Do you have anything you wish to unburden?’ He glanced at the book sitting on the coffee-table, the photo inside

Hailey sobered Did he have all night? But her history paled in comparison to his A dead wife and a son with a potentially fatal disease beat a broken heart and the death of a non-related child

‘Coht you were nearly a h this book earlier’ He picked it up ‘And this photo fell out’ He located it and passed it to her

Hailey stared at the picture She’d forgotten the photo was even there She’d bought the book while she’d been living in England and had never ht it home with her when she had fled She looked at Calluely compelled to tell him He had opened up to her Maybe it would help to talk about it with sorief

Calluaze ‘Is that your husband? Your son?’

She shook her head ‘No Eric was e I was his nanny He died in my care’

There She’d said it Said what no one else would Not her parents Or her sisters And not Paul Paul’s eyes, his withdrawal froave him a direct look A look that dared him to refute it

Callum are of the slow thud of his heart in his chest ‘Could you back up? I think you missed a few steps’

Hailey nodded wondering where to start as her thuhtly back and forth over Eric’s dear sweet little face in the photo They’d all been so happy that day

‘I lived in London for three years When I left here, I wanted to spreadother than ree—’