Page 74 of Broken Silence
Dad put his foot down, angrily waving someone off as they beeped at him.
“You’ll drive yourself crazy thinking about that, Jasper,” Dad said. “All that matters now is making sure she’s okay.”
“Can you drive faster?” I asked, tapping my thighs.
“Stay calm. She’s going to need you.”
“Why didn’t we see it? She looked terrified. Did she used to look like that?” Jasper asked.
“Don’t do this, man,” I said, looking over my shoulder. “She didn’t want anyone to see anything. Don’t go asking those questions.”
I couldn’t keep thinking of that, it was torture.
Jasper spat out a string of expletives, muttering to himself in the backseat about how much he hated his dad.
There was a lot of guilt eating him up for not noticing.
We shared that. I’d never forgive myself, either.
If I could turn back time, go back to that day she called me, I would have locked Oakley in my car, called Jasper to come and get her, and gone to find Max and Frank there and then.
That way, she wouldn’t have had to move halfway across the world. She wouldn’t have to worry about ever seeing either one of them again. There was so much I wanted to change to protect her. Nothing I wouldn’t do to make sure she was safe.
“If anything happens to her…” Jasper muttered.
“She’ll be fine,” Dad said to him, taking a corner a touch too fast.
Jasper took a deep, ragged breath. “I don’t think she should carry on with the trial.”
“What?”
“It’s not worth this. They’re going down with or without her testimony.”
Dad looked at Jasper in the rear-view mirror. “She may want to.”
“I don’t give a fuck. I don’t want Oakley anywhere near that court. If they get off, there are other ways of dealing with it.”
That other way not being something I would discourage.
Dad and I didn’t respond. There was no point because Jasper would just get angrier, and we were almost at the hospital. If Oakley wanted to give up, I would understand completely, but I knew her better than that.
She wanted to do it. She needed to.
Dad flew through the open gate of the hospital and made an abrupt stop in the car park. Jasper and I jumped out of the car and sprinted to the entrance of the huge, grey building. The ambulance was sitting outside A&E, but Oakley must’ve already been taken inside the hospital because it was empty.
The automatic doors slid open as we approached.
“There,” I said, pushing Jasper toward the front desk.
“Oakley Farrell!” Jasper shouted, slamming into the reception desk. “She was brought in a minute ago. I need to find her. Where is she?”
I thought the receptionist might’ve told him to calm down, but she obviously noticed his panic. “Take a left at the end of the corridor behind me. There’s a waiting room you can stay in. Someone will find you when they have news.”
“Thanks,” I said, taking off behind Jasper.
Following the receptionist’s directions, we made our way to the waiting room, where we found Sarah pacing back and forth, waving her shaking hands.
“Sarah!” I called. “What’s going on? Where is she?”
