Hayley felt a lump in her throat. She was afraid if she spoke, Thor would not continue.
Perhaps I should start at the beginning. She told me that she had secretly gotten married to a man in Kingston. When she found out that she was with child, she told my parents about the relationship and that shortly after the wedding, her husband had abandoned her. Late one night she came to me and said she was leaving Kingston. She asked me to set fire to the cottage she lived in, so that my parents would think she had died and not come looking for her."
"Why would she do that?"
"She told me she did not want our parents to be disgraced that she was raising a child without a husband.
She feared it would be rumored that she never had a husband and that our parents would believe it too."
"They would have been tormented by thinking she had died."
"I think she lied about having been abandoned by a husband, and she feared they would find out."
"So she let them think that their grandchild had died too?"
"Yes."
"How could you be a part of it?"
"I have been tormented every day."
"So what happened to her baby?"
"I have been trying to find out from Maddie, but she will not tell me. Something dreadful had to have happened because she trembled when I asked her."
"I will ask her."
"She will not tell you-and even more, she will want to know how you came to know about it."
"I will tell her that I talked to you."
"You can't." Thor held up his hand. "I cannot lose her again after all this time. It is bad enough that my parents will never see her again."
"She will forgive you, I know it."
"Why do you need to torment her by asking about the past?"
"I am trying to help her." Hayley shuddered as a thought came to her mind. "Did Maddie give birth to a boy or a girl?"
"It was a girl. She gave birth the day before she left Kingston."
Hayley stood quickly as her heart began to race. "I have to go. Thank you for helping me."
Thor grabbed her arm. "You are the one trembling now, what is it?"
"I'm fine. I just have a suspicion, and I'm going to get it confirmed."