Camille Parker had once been Hailey van Gowen.
It had been a tough fourteen years. Back then, she had lived well, with wealthy parents, supportive brothers, and convenient resources available all around her. She studied hard and had goals of her own.
But all of that changed when she found out. The discovery that changed her life from then on.
She had already thrown away the name ‘Hailey’ years ago and made peace with her new identity. She was older now, no longer the teenager from back then.
A woman in her early thirties who had a career of her own, but was alone with no family. She had never really planned on dating or getting married, and she had no real goal of her own, either.
Because she felt trapped.
All because of one stupid favor.
After leaving the van Gowen family behind, she settled down in a faraway country with the help of her savings, in a small, peaceful city called Vesdale. It hadn’t been easy, but she had the help of a kind nurse who took her in afterwards, so she at least had a place there where she could call home.
She had been 21 years old when she first met Christian Callahan there.
Her first impression of Christian hadn’t been all that great. Even during that time, Christian was notorious for many things. He was a known playboy and a spoiled brat, and he was also being currently trained by his father to take over the company soon. He was the typical arrogant bastard that she never liked.
His father, Greg Callahan, was a business tycoon who ruled over his company with an iron fist. Greg was known for his ruthless nature, but he was almost always successful with his business ventures and investments. Due to his merciless way of dealing with things, he naturally had many enemies.
And naturally, his children also became a target for blackmail or threats as well as revenge.
Everything happened by pure coincidence. At that time, her name had still been Hailey van Gowen, but she was having a hard time keeping herself lowkey, so she did her best to live her life as inconspicuously as possible.
Greg Callahan was a single father of two children. His wife passed away a few years ago, so he was the only one taking care of them both. Christian Callahan was the eldest, and the other one was Patricia Callahan, a lovely young girl with soft blond hair and innocent blue eyes.
Patricia had been in middle school at that time. When she was exiting the gates in the middle of class, she was suddenly grabbed by a couple of big, burly, strange men.
The security guards nearby were knocked unconscious, so they couldn’t help her. There were also barely any people around since the school was located in a forest just near a small neighborhood.
Hailey, on the other hand, had been passing by at that time. She was right there when they were pushing poor, crying Patricia towards the direction of their van. One of the men aimed a gun at Hailey and told her to buzz off if she knew what was good for her.
Hailey did not even hesitate.
When she was a child, her parents had her go through self-defense lessons, only for the purpose of protecting herself and nothing more. She was taught not to harm anybody for pleasure or gratification, and she was not to use her fists just to start stirring conflict.
However, this wasn’t just any conflict right now. She might not be involved in it, but she would be damned if she didn’t try to help out an innocent, helpless little girl.
So she fought back.
“Agh!” the man holding the gun cried out as Hailey ducked and executed a roundhouse kick to his legs, causing him to fall to the ground and let go of his pistol. Hailey kicked the gun towards the road and then rushed towards the other three men.
The men were startled at her display of defense and started to run towards her with their raised weapons. Two of them were holding a bat while one was holding a knife. Apparently, they never expected that somebody would go against them.
One of the men swung the bat at her, but she dodged it swiftly and landed an uppercut to the man’s chin, causing him to stagger backwards and fall to the ground. The other man with the bat rushed at her, roaring as he aimed at her head. She sidestepped his attack and punched him hard on the nose, knocking him unconscious.
The last man who was holding Patricia was brandishing a knife. “Don’t you come any closer!”
Patricia was crying. The man immediately covered her mouth while still wielding the knife in his other hand. “Shut up!” he roared.
Suddenly, as if desperate, Patricia bit down on the man’s hand as hard as she could. The man groaned in pain, and Hailey took that as an opportunity to rush in.
She kicked the knife out of his hand, pulled Patricia behind her protectively, and stepped back into a defensive position. From the corner of her eye, she saw that the other two men, excluding the one that she had knocked unconscious earlier, were starting to get up from the ground, so she had to think fast.
“Sweetie, would you mind taking my phone out of my pocket?” she told the little girl in a gentle tone of voice. “Once you get it, call the police immediately, okay?”
Patricia, still sobbing, nodded obediently and started to slip her hand inside Hailey’s pocket for the phone. She took it and started dialing in no time.
While Patricia was struggling, Hailey kept her close while battling off the three men who were coming right at her. One of them rushed towards her quickly, so she kicked him on the leg until he collapsed to the ground on one knee. With that, she kneed him on the face right at the nose, knocking him out immediately.
The other two growled as they ran towards her, one with his fists and the other with his bat. When the man swung, Hailey ducked and aimed a punch right at the solar plexus. The man stopped in his tracks and doubled over from the pain. Hailey grabbed that opportunity to punch him on the side of his head, rendering him immobile.
The other man pounced at her, intent on catching her off-guard. Hailey didn’t even turn around and simply elbowed him right on the chest, causing him to stagger backwards. While he was currently vulnerable, she jabbed him in the middle of his throat, causing his windpipe to close for a few seconds.
While the man gasped for air, she side-kicked him until he fell to the ground.
Hailey panted as her eyes darted around the surroundings, wary if there were any more opponents. Thankfully, there seemed to be none.
She turned towards Patricia, who had apparently escaped from the fight and was now huddled against the corner of the fence, crying. Hailey quickly approached her.
“Little girl, are you all right?” she asked gently.
Patricia nodded, sniffing.
“Don’t worry. The bad guys are gone now. They won’t hurt you anymore,” Hailey assured her, reaching out to caress the girl’s hair comfortingly. “Did you call the police like I asked you to?”
The girl shook her head.
Hailey blinked. “You didn’t call them?”
“I called my dad,” the girl replied.
“Your dad?”
“Yes.” The girl looked up at Hailey with her round, innocent eyes. “My dad is Gregory Callahan of the Callahan Group.”