When her mother was released from jail, she pressured Hayley into marrying Alec. Hayley married him, despite her attraction to Mateo. Mateo tried to convince Hayley of Alec's demonic behavior. Hayley was finally convinced when she and Mateo walked into her mother's room and found Alec trying to pour alcohol down Arlene's throat in order to silence her threats of telling Hayley about their sordid affair. Hayley sent Alec McIntyre to jail for trying to kill her mother via alcohol poisoning. Trevor told Arlene that it would be best if she left town for a while in a rehabilitation program, Arlene took his advice. Mateo and Hayley finally declared their love for each other and were engaged. Hayley and Mateo started living together in a small apartment. Mateo came upon a terrific idea of buying "Hal's Bar" and start a restaurant/cafe shop with Hayley. After many attempts to buy the bar, they finally were permitted to buy the bar and they turned it into a restaurant called "Holidays" and business started rolling in.  Mateo and Haley's relationship was tested by one of Mateo's old friends, Tanner Jordan. Tanner arrived in Pine Valley from Texas and immediately accepted a job as a waiter at Holidays. Tanner desired Hayley from the first day he saw her. Determined to win her over, he tried everything in his power to break up Mateo and Hayley – including paying an actor to impersonate his alcoholic father. Tanner was an airplane pilot and used Hayley's interest in learning to fly as a means of getting closer to her. He convinced Hayley to fly with him under the guise of surprising Mateo while he was in Texas, but instead he faked a forced emergency landing near a cave in Virginia where he drugged and raped her. All hopes of finding Hayley seemed lost, but Mateo managed to find the cave. As he struggled with Tanner, Tanner was accidentally mortally wounded by a gunshot. Mateo found Hayley and had her rushed to a nearby hospital. Mateo stayed by her side and asked her to marry him – right there, right now. Hayley said yes and she and Mateo (with Adam and Liza there as witnesses) were married in her hospital room. Life seemed to return to normal for Hayley and her husband. When Erica visited Enchantment and saw how poorly it was being run by the management team Hayley had installed, she made an offer to buy back the cosmetics company.