“I can’t do that. He’ll think I did it and then he’ll never speak to me again. This is so much worse than just a spanking, Sadie.” Tears were blurring her vision, but she frantically began picking up pieces to try and put the ruined house back together.
“Hayleigh come on. We should just tell him what happened. I promise he’ll listen to you. I’ll make him.”
Just then, the door to fridge opened and Hayleigh’s worst nightmare came true. Her Daddy’s large frame filled the doorway, fury etched into every line of his face.
“Daddy, I’m sorry. I swear I didn’t do it. I-I can explain!”
“Mr. Connor, we found it like this,” Sadie jumped in, putting herself between Hayleigh and her furious Daddy.
Without a word for either of them, Connor turned on his heel and strode away.
“Well. That could have been worse,” Sadie chirped, turning to her friend. “Hays? Are you okay?”
Hayleigh felt like her heart was being split in two. “He hates me. He’s never going to talk to me again. I ruined everything!”
Rushing forward, Sadie wrapped her arms around her and squeezed tight. “Your Daddy does not hate you,” she said firmly. “Come on, let’s go find my Daddy and explain what happened.”
Chapter 17
Furious didn’t even beginto describe what Connor was feeling. All that hard work, all that time, all of that puretalentjust gone to waste. He needed a minute, maybe an hour, to clear his mind. There was no way he could deal with Hayleigh right then. No, when he put her over his knee for the spanking of the fucking century, he wanted a perfectly clear, calm mind.
Why the hell would she do something like that? She’d been so proud of her work with Angel that morning, why would she destroy it?
It just didn’t make any sense. Unless she’d been trying to get his attention, since he’d left her at the party.
But she’d known beforehand he would be working. It wasn’t like he’d surprised her. And she’d seemed perfectly understanding when he’d dropped her off.
So, what had she been thinking?
October slapped him in the face when he walked outside and he could already feel the anger begin to lower from a straight boil to a simmer. Maybe it had been an accident. Closing his eyes, he inhaled the brisk, fall air and tried to clear his mind. She’d said she didn’t do it, and he hadn’t yet known her to lie about anything. Whenever she’d been caught being naughty, she’d always fessed up to it, right away.
That made more sense. She’d wanted to show Sadie the haunted house and one of them had tripped or knocked the house over somehow.
He was still going to paddle her silly for sneaking into the kitchen when she should have been at the party. Knowing it probably hadn’t been malicious cooled the last of his anger.
Feeling much steadier, he walked back into the building and made his way to the kitchen. He was just around the corner when a familiar raised voice caught his attention.
What the hell was Julia doing here?
Hayleigh and Sadie barely made it five steps out of the kitchen before they ran into the very last person Hayleigh wanted to see when her heart was already breaking. Stepping out of one of the playrooms, Julia blocked their path and folded her arms over her chest, her mouth twisted up into an ugly smirk. “Did you get lost, brats?”
“You aren’t supposed to be here,” Sadie said, her voice losing its usual sweet, little girl quality. Hayleigh was so shocked by the change, her tears stopped instantly. She stared at her friend. There was no doubt thatthiswoman was in charge.
Julia’s eyes went wide with surprise. Obviously, Hayleigh wasn’t the only one who’d never seen this side of Sadie before. But the surprise only lasted a moment before Julia’s sneer was firmly back in place. “You can’t speak to me like that.”
“No,youcan’t speak tomethe way you do,” Sadie snapped, pulling Hayleigh closer to her. “Or any of the other Littles, for that matter. I’ve tried being nice to you, and I had hoped you would get over whatever issues you have with us, but I was wrong. Derek has already started the paperwork for your termination and first thing in the morning I plan to make sure it’s effective immediately. For now, I suggest you go back to your quarters before I call security and have you escorted out of the building.”
“It doesn’t matter. Once Connor realizes what a huge mistake he made with this little brat,” she waved a hand at Hayleigh, “he’ll be begging me to stay. And we all know that what Chef wants, Chef gets. And after tonight, Chef will want me.”
Everything clicked into place and for a moment, Hayleigh could only stare at the other woman. “You ruined the haunted house!”
“As far as yourDaddyis concerned, you ruined it. And you really think he’s going to believe you over me, after all of your little pranks?”
Breaking free of Sadie’s hold, Hayleigh launched herself at the other woman. She didn’t have a plan, beyond hurting her. Hurting her the way she hurt, just then, with her heart shattered and betrayal burning a hole in her gut.
The pair tumbled to the ground together, limbs flailing as they each vied for dominance. Somewhere in the back of Hayleigh’s mind, it occurred to her she’d never actually been in a fight and as a result she had no clue what she was doing. But she wasn’t about to back down now that she was in the thick of it.
She had height on her side and she was eventually able to leverage it to her advantage to pin Julia beneath her. But before she could figure out her next move, she was lifted off of her opponent and set on her feet. She tried to lunge for Julia again, but a familiar arm wrapped around her waist.