His Regret Can No Longer Touch My Heart Chapter 06
Caleb stayed in London for three days.
Terrified he’d drag me back to Ohio, I skipped classes and didn’t step foot outside my apartment.
Niamh came by every day to bring me food.
The first day, she peered down at the man waiting outside. “Who’s that?”
“Someone I know.”
“What’s he want?”
“No idea.”
Niamh leaned on the windowsill, glanced at my belly, then back down. She clicked her tongue.
“Looks expensive. Has a bit of an Italian mafia vibe.”
I didn’t respond.
The second day, Niamh arrived with a massive bouquet of red roses.
I told her to toss them.
The third day, she brought white roses and a card.
The card read: [I’m sorry.]
I told her to toss both.
The fourth day, Niamh told me he was gone.
She delivered the news in a cryptic tone.
“Trust me. In London, he can’t take you anywhere.”
I knew mafia tactics.
Still, I stayed paranoid and refused to go out.
Until Niamh showed up with a full detail of guards.
My life finally returned to calm.
Aside from the row of Niamh’s guards tailing me everywhere.
Days turned into weeks.
I designed my grandmother’s emerald brooch into a necklace.
The emerald set into a sterling silver base, its cracks filled with fine gold thread.
Like tree roots.
Like leaf veins.
Like new life growing from the breaks.
My advisor reviewed the design and said, “This is healing.”
Healing.
Yes.
I was healing myself.
Through a new life—and the new life growing inside me.
He’d be here soon.
Everything was good.
Then I got a call.
From Ohio.
“Hello?”
“Hailey?” It was Donna Rachel’s voice, thick with tears. “Hailey, it’s Mama…”
I stayed silent for several seconds.
“Mrs. Hayes. What do you need?”
Choked sobs came through the line.
“Hailey, I’m so sorry. I know now. I know everything.”
“You were pregnant. You went through the surgery alone… I’m so, so sorry…”
“When did you find out?” My voice stayed even.
“Today.” She broke down completely. “Just today.”
Before I left Ohio, I’d left those two pieces of paper at the Hayes estate.
I figured they’d known all along and simply didn’t care.
Donna Rachel wept so hard she could barely breathe.
“I only found out today how much you suffered. I was wrong.”
“Hailey, please come home. I will make it all up to you…”
I leaned against the headboard, looking down at my full, round belly.
Today was my due date.
I was about to meet my real family.
I didn’t need their fake affection anymore.
“Mrs. Hayes, I don’t need any compensation.”
“Hailey—”
“Is there anything else? If not, I’m hanging up.”
“Wait!” She panicked. “Your father knows he was wrong too. He’s kicking Delilah out! Come home, sweetheart. This family is your—”
“I never belonged to that family.”
I hung up.
Blocked.
No hesitation.
Later, I found out what had gone down at the Hayes estate during those days.
Turned out Delilah had hidden the two papers I left behind.
When they were finally discovered, Delilah tried to smear my name and destroy me completely.
“She stole a used condom from Caleb to get pregnant on purpose—”
just to snatch the Hayes-Moretti marriage alliance.”
“She’s a shameless slut.”
But then someone dug out the photos from Caleb’s computer—pictures he’d taken of me over those five years.
In the rental apartment. On campus. At the beach.
Me laughing. Me asleep. Me cooking.
In those photos, I looked so genuinely happy.
The only version of me they’d ever seen truly happy.
Donna Rachel broke down crying when she saw them.
Because it gutted her.
For the first time, she realized her own daughter might have endured hell out there.
She began digging into my past.
My grandmother’s illness. What happened to me at the private club. How Caleb saved me. The five-year secret relationship…
Layer by layer, when the truth peeled back, she shattered.
Don Hunter fell silent too.
They finally understood—the daughter they had ignored, scorned, and driven away was the one who truly needed their protection.
And Delilah.
The Principessa they’d coddled for twenty years had been lying from the very beginning.
The Hayes Family’s world turned upside down.