Broken Silence (8 page)

“So what do you think?” I asked, watching Cole look around the garden.

“I like it.” He got his phone out, and I knew he was calling the estate agent. “Hello, Margaret
… yeah, I really like it but is the work just cosmetic? I mean I’m not gonna move in and it falls down or anything.”

I held my breath as they discussed the structural damage or what seemed to be a lack of.

“Okay, then I want it.”

Yes!
I didn’t even know why I was so excited. I wouldn’t be living in the gorgeous house. Soon I wouldn’t even be in the same time zone as it. Cole hung up and slipped his phone in his pocket.

“You’re buying it?”

He nodded. “You’re helping. You’re staying here until stupid o’clock in the morning painting and tiling. You’re working for hot chocolate and ice cream.”

I laughed. “Deal. Wait, how quickly can you move in?”

“Fairly quickly. There’s no chain, so I’ve just got to wait for all the legal shit to be completed.” He shook his head and smiled. “I can’t believe I’ve just bought this hole!”

“It won’t be a hole!”

“I know. I wanted a project, and I’ve certainly got one.” He looked up at the house, at
his
house. “Man I can’t wait to move in now.”

“Well let’s get started. You drive to some boring DIY store and we can pick up paint charts. Ooh and look at kitchens and bathrooms!”

He groaned. “You’re going to be a nightmare, aren’t you?”

“Absolutely. Come on.”

We arrived back at Cole’s house, well his parents’ house, loaded with brochures and paint charts from every brand.

“How did it go?” Jenna asked as we walked in his soon-to-be old house.

“Great. I’m a hundred and twenty-three grand poorer,” he replied sarcastically. It was a steal at that price. Although he
was
going to spend quite a bit doing it up.

“But you have an amazing house,” I countered.

“First, I have a project. A damn expensive, time consuming project.”

“You’re so negative, sweetheart. We’ll all help you decorate and whatever else it needs.”

“What are we detoatin?” Leona asked, rubbing her eyes.

“Uncle Cole’s new house.”

Leona’s bottom lip stuck out, and she looked up at Cole with big pleading eyes.

“I want you to live here.”

Cole rolled his eyes at his mum and picked Leona up.

“I’ll come see you all the time, and you can stay at mine whenever you want, okay?”

She nodded and flung her arms around his neck. I didn’t blame her for getting upset. I would hate not seeing him all the time. I
did
hate it.

I spent a little more time with Cole, Leona, and Jenna, talking about the house before going back to Ali’s. I wanted to stay longer, but I didn’t want to push it.

Mum’s hire car was the only one in the drive so Ali and Lizzie had obviously gone out.

“You back with him yet?” Jasper asked as soon as I walked in the house.

“Hello to you too.”

He cocked his head to the side, waiting for an answer.

“No, Jasper.”

“You two are stupid.”

I glared at him and walked away. I wasn’t in the mood for Jasper’s Cole talk. “It’s gonna happen eventually.”

I had an hour before I had to leave to meet up with my lawyer, Linda. So I didn’t have to spend it arguing with Jasper over what I should do about Cole, I grabbed a magazine off Lizzie’s desk and laid on the futon to read it.

When I couldn’t put it off any longer, I went downstairs. Mum and Jasper had offered to come with me, but I honestly didn’t want them to. I was still hoping they would change their mind about being there while I was giving evidence. I understood they wanted to be there – hopefully to watch him go down – but I hated the thought of them hearing everything that happened with Frank.

“Hi, honey,” Mum said. Her voice was soft, the voice she used for me as a child.

I smiled. “Hey.”

“Are you sure you don’t want us to come?” Jasper asked, getting straight to the point.

“I’m sure.”

Mum sighed. “We don’t mind. We both want to be there for you.”

“I know, but the best way you can help me is by letting me do this alone. Please?”

Mum nodded, agreeing as I thought she would. Jasper frowned, but I knew he had given in. Running away was easier, and I wanted nothing more than to be back in Australia but that would solve nothing.

The doorbell ringing broke me from my thoughts.

“I got it,” Jasper shouted, even though we were all in the same room.

Jasper soon returned to the kitchen followed by Cole. I immediately felt a little better.

“Call me if you need anything. Jasper, you can come and help me at the supermarket.”

“What?” Jasper said. Mum ushered him out of the room.

“Ah, you’re giving them time alone.”

I sighed.

“Love you. Call if you need me,” Mum said and kissed my forehead.

“Shouldn’t you be working?”

He took a half-day holiday to view the house, but he was supposed to go back in the afternoon.

“So you’ve given up on the hello thing altogether,” he teased, leaning on the breakfast bar.

I smiled. “Only with you! Seriously, why aren’t you at work? Did they finally realise what they’d done hiring you in the first place?”

“Ha ha. I’ve actually come to take you to your appointment.”

He held his hand up as I was about to argue. Did my mother ask him to?

“Shh, no arguing. I’m taking you. I’ll wait outside if you want me too, but I’m going. If I have to, I’ll just stalk you there.”

“Creeper.”

“Shut up and get in the car.” He tried to sound stern but a little smile let him down.

I grinned. “Fine.”

We drove in silence, and I was fairly relaxed for what I was about to be discussing. However, when we parked outside Linda’s office, I felt sick.

“It’s gonna be okay,” Cole said, rubbing the back of my hand with his thumb. “If you want me to come in I will.”

“Thanks.” My throat was dry, making my voice hoarse. I
could
do this though. It was just about what was going to happen. I wasn’t actually going to see either of them in my lawyers office! “Okay, let’s just get this over with.”

I got out and followed Cole inside, sticking to him like glue. He was safety, and I didn’t want to let him go.

Linda stood by the reception desk putting blue files in a wooden tray. She looked up.

“Hello, Oakley. Come on through.”

She was a petite lady with long, prematurely greying hair. She looked like more of a teacher than a lawyer, but her looks were very deceiving, the woman was like a shark in court, apparently. I had every faith that she would get them sent down.

“Thank you.” I looked up to Cole, biting on my lip nervously. “Come with me?”

He squeezed my hand. “Course I will.”

Cole and I sat opposite Linda. My stomach felt like it was tipping upside down. I was being stupid! I was only here to talk about what was going to happen when the trial started; that was it. Reaching out, I grabbed Cole’s hand, holding it in a death grip.

I took a deep breath. “So what’s going to happen then?”

“Well, as you know the trial is starting in just under two weeks. I’m not exactly sure when you’ll be giving evidence yet though.” She frowned. “This is a very complex case, but I predict it’ll be in roughly three or four weeks; it just depends on how cooperative Mr Farrell is. His lawyer also has a long list of witnesses to call.”

“They’re still pleading not guilty, aren’t they?”

Linda waved her hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about that. Their plea is a joke; there’s too much evidence against them. The jury can’t ignore the evidence. There are five girls, including you, giving evidence against your father. This trial will be a long one, but you have the truth on your side, and a lot of people willing to back it up.”

Linda was so positive. I suppose she would have to be, but we all knew guilty people walked free occasionally.

“So you have complete confidence then? They won’t get away with it?” I didn’t know what I would do if they got away
with it. If they were free to carry on with their lives. I don’t think I would ever be able to come back to England if they did. I couldn’t face the possibility of running into them.

“I have confidence, yes.” She leant forwards. “I believe you, Oakley, and I believe justice will be served, but I can’t promise.”

“How close will they be to me?” I whispered. A shudder ran through my body. The same room was too close, but there was no way around that.

“They won’t be close to you, I
can
promise you that. There is no way they can get near you. You’ll be safe, but if at any point it becomes too much I can ask for a break.”

“Okay.
Thank you. What if they try talking to me?”

“They won’t be allowed to. If they attempt to, there will be consequences. It will look incredibly bad on their part if they try anything like that. They would have been severely warned not to.”

I let out a deep breath.
Thank God.

“How long are we looking at them getting?” Cole asked, frowning angrily.

“I’m going to ask that the judge considers the maximum sentence.”

“Good. Just a shame we don’t still have the death sentence.” I squeezed Cole’s hand. He was getting angry.

Once Linda had explained everything, we stood up. I was relieved to be leaving. “I’ll be in touch soon if anything has changed. You can call me if you think of anything else.”

“Thank you.”

“Thanks,” Cole replied.

We stepped out of the building, and I felt more scared than before. It was getting way too real now. I could no longer say it was months off or ages away: it was soon. I turned to Cole, and he wrapped his arms around me.

I gripped hold of him and buried my head in his chest.

“It’s going to be okay. I’ll be with you; I promise.” His lips pressed against the top of my head. “I never stopped loving you, Oakley,” he whispered into my hair.

I smiled and gripped him harder, needing to be closer. “I never stopped loving you.”

Chapter Eight

Cole

‘I never stopped loving you’. Those five words made me feel a thousand feet tall. I knew she hadn’t moved on or met someone else, but hearing the words meant everything.

She pulled back and gave me a weak smile.

“You gonna be okay?” I asked, trying to hold off kissing her.

“I’ll be fine,” she whispered, still gripping onto my T-shirt.

Her actions contradicted her words.

“I need ice cream. Do you have to get back to work or do you have some time?”

“I’m yours all day.”

Oakley smiled, and that playful glint returned to her eyes.

“They did fire you, didn’t they?”

“Why would they fire me? I’m a fucking legend!”

She
laughed, quickly covering it up with a cough. That was what I wanted though, to make her laugh.

“I took a day’s holiday, actually.”

“You took a day off work so you could come with me?”

I’m not sure if I should be a little insulted that she was surprised. Of course I took the day off to go with her.

“Yeah,” I replied

“Thank you.”

“Any time. Now let’s go get some ice cream.” I grabbed her hand instinctively and led her towards my car. Her hand in mine felt so natural. When we were together like this, it felt like we’d never been apart.

Oakley scrunched her nose up. “I don’t like the new place. They should change it back.”

“Yeah I know. They won’t though. I already requested.”

“Really? They wouldn’t rip out all the new stuff and replace it with the old?” she asked, cocking her head to the side.

“You’re so sarcastic now. Australia was a bad influence on you.”

She shook her head.

“It’s not Australia. You just make it easy.”

Before I could react she pulled her hand out of mine and shot around to the passenger side of my car, laughing her beautiful head off. Seeing her smile and hearing her laugh was completely worth her teasing the crap out of me.

“Shut up and get in the car,” I said, repeating my words from earlier.

“Shut up and unlock the car,” she countered.

I tried not to grin as I unlocked the door. As soon as her hand reached out to grab the handle I locked it again.

“How old are you, Cole?”

Chuckling to myself, I unlocked it again and got in.

“You missed the turning,” Oakley pointed out as I purposefully drove past ice cream parlour.

“I know. We’re going somewhere else.”

“I knew it! Gay club, right?”

“You’re insulting yourself there, Oaks.”

She mumbled something under her breath that I couldn’t understand. Messing around with her was fun before, but now she had the confidence to properly give it back I loved it.

I parked in my drive and suddenly felt nervous. What if she thought I was some sort of weird creep? “We’re having ice cream at your house?”

“Yeah. Come on.”

Oakley followed me to the kitchen, where I made two milkshakes and two bowls of ice cream.

“Okay, follow me,” I mumbled.

She looked at me like I was crazy as I got her to hold the tray while I opened the garage door.

“We’re having ice cream in your garage?”

“Trust me.”

I took the tray off her and led her around the old wardrobes, car parts, and cardboard boxes. Taking a shaky breath, I walked around the clothes rail and stopped as I saw it. She gasped, and I knew she’d seen it too.

“What
…” Oakley trailed off.

I didn’t turn around. I was scared to see whatever look she had on her face right now.

“Why is this here?”

Finding some courage, I turned to face her.

“I bought it.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “You bought our booth?”

At the back of the garage, tucked away in the corner, was our booth. They were selling the old booths, tables, and chairs when they did the remodelling, and I bought the one we spent so much time in. It was kind of stupid, but it felt like the last little bit of her left to me, and I couldn’t let it go.

“Yeah, I bought it.”

She nodded, staring at me dumbfounded. Okay, this was bad. I shouldn’t have brought her here. I should have just kept it to myself.

Finally, after a few of the longest minutes of my life she smiled.

“I can’t believe you did that.”

She walked past me and sat down on her usual side, and I sighed. She was sitting and not running.

I had not been that scared in a while, not since Mia’s waters broke when we were home alone.

“Well I didn’t want someone else having their smelly arse on our booth.”

“Why would they have a smelly…” She shook her head. “Actually never mind. Gimme the ice cream!”

Chuckling, I set her milkshake and ice cream down in front of her, doing a little bow.

“You’re dismissed,” she said, playing along and waving her hand at me.

“What am I? Your bitch?”

Her silence and smug smile said it all.

“So, how much did you pay for it?”

Dilemma. Do I tell her the truth and make her think I was unstable, and a bit of an obsessive stalker, or lie, so I didn’t look too bad. I sighed, not really having a choice. I couldn’t lie to her.

“I paid two hundred.”

“Pounds?” she blurted out, her eyes widening in disbelief.

“No Euros,” I replied sarcastically.

She stared blankly and dug her spoon into the ice cream.

“Wow, two hundred pounds. They saw you coming. It’s barely worth fifty!”

“I changed my mind, I didn’t miss you.”

Oakley grinned and shook her head. “Liar.”

Every single time I looked at her I wanted to beg her to give us another chance. We could make it work. I would give up everything and move to Australia if she still wanted to live there. Something stopped me bringing up the subject, and that was the thought of her saying no. It hurt so much the first time. I couldn’t do it again. She loved me, but that wasn’t enough four years ago, so why would it be enough now?

I sighed and sat back in the seat. There was nothing I could do right now. I didn’t want to push it.

“What are you thinking? Your face has gone all serious.”

“I wasn’t thinking anything.”

“Of course you weren’t,” she said sarcastically. “It’s fine, don’t tell me.”

“You’re so dramatic. Anyway I’m getting the keys to the house one day this week so I can measure for carpet quotes and stuff. Wanna come?”

“Are you going to carpet shops after?” she asked, smiling hopefully. I wasn’t going to. I couldn’t think of anything more boring. I was just gonna call them up and get a quote, but her pleading eyes worked on me again.

I sighed. “Yes.”

“Then I’m there. Oh, do you know what colours you want yet?”

“Something neutral? I couldn’t care less really.”

Oakley shook her head. “We can have a look in a couple of places.”

“Great,” I responded with fake enthusiasm. I think I would actually rather play golf than shop for carpets, and man
, golf was boring.

“You have to buy everything, don’t you? Like a washing machine, cooker and all the other appliances.”

“Did you think I was joking when I said I was taking it to my mum?”

“You’re twenty-two years old, Cole! You’re doing your own washing.”

She held her hand up as I was about to say something. “Don’t even think about using
I don’t know how to
as an excuse. I’m going to show you.”

“You just wanna touch my dirty clothes.”

She rolled her eyes.

“Kinky,” I added, wanting some proper reaction.

“Yeah, I’m having a really hard time not jumping you and having wild sex on the table.”

I leant further back, holding my arms out.

“I’m not stopping ya. In fact, I actively encourage it.”

Oakley rolled her beautiful blue eyes again.

“Of course you do.”

I looked down at my milkshake and then back at Oakley. Her eyes widened as she knew exactly what I was thinking. Hmm it had been a while.

“You’re a grown up now, Cole!” She giggled and grabbed her straw too, ready to flick it back at me if I started it.

I slowly stirred the milkshake with the straw, watching her the whole time. Her smile grew wider as she waited for the inevitable. I was just about to flick the straw at her when cold milkshake hit my face. My mouth dropped open.

“Too slow,” she sang.

Quickly recovering from the shock, I dunked my whole hand in the glass, ready to wipe it across her pretty little face but she was already on her feet, heading towards the half open door.

She couldn’t move very fast as she had to weave around all the junk Mum insisted on keeping, so I quickly caught up with her. I wrapped my arm around her waist and pulled her against my chest.

She grabbed my arm, holding it away from her and wriggled to get out of my grip.

“Stop struggling, Oakley. It’s happening.”

“No! Cole!”

“I’ll give up if you say sorry.”

“Not a chance,” she mumbled, laughing. I managed to get my arm closer to her face. “No, no, no! I only flicked a little on you.”

“Fine, I’ll only wipe one finger across your face.”

Again, she started laughing and struggling harder. She was a lot stronger than she used to be. I almost had to try.

“No, Cole!”

Five minutes later, I gave up. We sat back down to finish eating, well, drinking, our melted ice cream. She made me feel like a teenager again.

“Jasper wants to go,” she blurted out.
Okay…

She had done that a lot recently, slipping serious stuff into conversation. She’d be joking one minute, and then something she obviously found difficult to say would slip out.

“To the trial?”

“Yes. I tried to talk him out of it but he told me he’s made his decision and he’s going.”

I wanted to be there when they were both found guilty and sent down too.

“Why would he want to hear what happened?” she asked, ‘What Dad had done?”

“Probably for the same reason as you. He wants closure, Oakley.”

She sighed and rested her chin on her hands. I knew what she was thinking.

“I feel guilty.”

For a few seconds I was speechless; it was so hard to know what to say. But then I replied, “Why do
you
feel guilty?”

“Jasper lost his dad, and as much as he says he hates him there must be some part of him that still cares.”

“Some part?”
What the hell is she thinking?

“Yes! The part that remembers Dad teaching him to ride a bike and drive a car. Every Christmas where Dad would make a fort out of the empty boxes. When he took him to the park and helped with his homework-”

“Okay, stop. That man wasn’t real.”

Her eyes glazed over, and I felt the temperature drop.

“But that’s not true. He was real to Jasper.”

I moved quickly, sliding in beside her and wrapping my arms around her tiny body.

“The guilt shouldn’t be with you. It’s not your fault. Jasper may have lost his dad, but that’s not because of you.”

Oakley nodded against my chest.

“You don’t believe me, do you?”

“No one believes you, Cole,” she said with a shaky voice, trying to make a joke.

“That’s because you all suck,” I mumbled against her hair. Her body shook lightly as she laughed.

Every time I saw her upset, I hated myself. I didn’t understand how we
all
could have missed it. I had told Oakley thousands of times over the years that she could tell me what was going on but she never did.

“Sorry. Again. You must think I’m an unstable mess!”

“Not unstable. Although you are getting a little more like Jasper,” I joked.

Oakley’s moods were about something. She had a good reason, whereas Jaspers were about the most random things, even when he was a kid. He had always been the joker and after a while no one could tell if his reactions were genuine or an act.

“That’s the same as unstable.”

I chuckled quietly and closed my eyes, pulling her closer. She couldn’t feel exactly the same about me as I felt about her or there was no way she would be able to go back to Australia. But if I felt leaving her was the best thing for her, could I do it? I thought about that for a while. Loving someone meant putting them first. I would have to do it.

“Do you want to go when it starts?”