Broken Silence (Silence, #2)

“You don’t need to make up stuff like that, Jasper. We all like you, ya know,” Lizzie said.

Jasper stared at her blankly. “Well thanks for that, peroxide, but it happened. Believe me, that’s not something you forget. But anyway, I don’t care what you lot think.”

The doorbell rang, thankfully! I think Lizzie was seconds away from reacting to the peroxide comment.

It fell on me to open the door since Mia laid back and kicked her feet up on the coffee table. “Don’t move, yeah. I’ll get it,” I said sarcastically. I pulled the front door open, and my face fell as I saw two police officers.

One of them frowned. “Cole Benson?”

“Yeah.”

“Can we come in?” I stepped aside, and they walked in. The room fell silent.

My dad, who had come back inside asked, “What’s going on?”

“I’m sorry to do this,” the taller officer said, turning to me. “Mr Benson, I’m arresting you–”

That was all I heard because Oakley shouted, “No!” She stared at me in horror. Her face was as white as a ghost. Shit, was she going to be okay? I turned around as one of them held out handcuffs.

“Is that really necessary?” Dad shouted.

Oakley wasn’t moving. The only thing that made her still look alive was the tears rolling down her face. I looked at Jasper for help.

“You can’t do this.” Mum sobbed. They can do this. I’d had sex with Oakley when she was fifteen. They were supposed to do this.

“It’s okay, it’s going to be fine,” I said as I was pulled towards the door.

She shook her head fiercely. “No! No, please. You can’t do this. Please. Please?”

Jasper caught her as she fell towards me. I wanted nothing more than to grab her and wrap my arms around her, but I couldn’t do a fucking thing. “Oakley, it’ll be fine,” I repeated.

She shook her head. “No. Please don’t do this,” she pleaded with the police officers.

It broke my heart. I hated seeing her like that. What the hell could I do to make it better though? First, I needed a damn good lawyer. In my head, I was mentally planning the worst case scenario and what I should or shouldn’t say.

As we approached the car, I noticed the neighbours’ curtains being pulled back, and some even came outside. “Leave him the hell alone,” Mr Gregory from across the road shouted. I flashed him a grateful smile. “They’ve been through enough. How dare you!” he roared.

Shit. The whole street were getting involved. By the time the officer had opened the door at least ten more people had come out of their houses to protest. As the car door was slammed shut, I looked back at Oakley. Sarah grabbed her as her legs gave way. My heart felt like it had just been ripped out of my chest. ‘I love you,’ I mouthed as the car pulled away.





Chapter Twenty-Two


Oakley




I laid in bed staring at the ceiling in a zombie-like state. Arrested. Arrested because of me. That night was the best night of my life: it was the night when I had felt so loved, and safe, and normal. How could that possibly be wrong?

Wiping my face again, I noticed there was nothing there any more. Had all my tears dried up? I felt as if I had nothing left inside me to come out. It had been almost thirty-five minutes since Cole was arrested, and I just wanted to be with him.

‘It wouldn’t look good if you went to the station’ were the officer’s words. Wouldn’t look good? Surely it would show that I love him? The only reason I was still in the house was because I was too scared of making it worse for him.

There had to be something I could do? Deny it and say I had lied in court? But then why would I lie about sleeping with him in the first place? I could say we didn’t go that far. That Cole stopped it just before we’d actually had sex. I pressed my face into the pillow and whimpered. What could I do?

“Oakley,” Jasper said softly, sitting on the edge of the futon. I hadn’t even heard him come in. “Oakley?”

Squeezing my eyes shut, I pretended he wasn’t there. I felt bad for ignoring him. He was only trying to help, but I just couldn’t talk to anyone. The only person I wanted to talk to was Cole.

Jasper sighed and got up, making me roll a little as the mattress sprung up. “I’ll be downstairs. David and Jenna have gone to the station. We’ll get him a good lawyer and figure this out.”

As the bedroom door closed, I sat up and gasped. Linda. Of course! She’d helped me, she could help Cole too, surely? I called her straight away.

“Oakley?” she said, picking up on the second ring.

“Linda, I need your help. They’ve arrested Cole.”

“They’ve what?” She sighed as it obviously sank in why. “Oh. Okay,” she said, changing to her business-like tone. “I assume they’ve taken him to the station already?”

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