Broken Silence (Silence, #2)(43)

I looked down and froze. Oakley was lying on the floor. My heart had stopped, and I dropped to my knees.

“What happened?” I asked desperately. “What’s going on? Oakley, talk to me!”

Behind me, someone old guy was on his phone calling an ambulance, and Linda was busy checking Oakley’s pulse. I was so scared I felt sick. My heart thumped against my chest.

“Oakley! What happened, Linda? Please wake up, Oakley. Don’t do this to me,” I begged.

“She just collapsed,” Linda replied, and rolled her onto her side. “She’s breathing.” She looked pale, and her skin was clammy. “I think it was a panic attack. Did she eat this morning? That wouldn’t help if she hadn’t.”

“Um.” I shook my head. “I don’t know.” Leaning down, I brushed her hair from her face. “Can you hear me, baby? It’s going to be alright,” I whispered in her ear.

“Oakley,” Sarah screamed.

Jasper dropped down beside me. “What the fuck! What’s wrong with her?”

“Panic attack, Linda thinks,” I muttered, stroking the back of her hand.

Paramedics burst through the doors seconds after them and rushed over. After firing off a string of questions and checking her over, they placed an oxygen mask over her mouth and laid her on a stretcher. Her eyes flickered, and I thought she was going to open them, but she didn’t.

“Okay, let’s get her out,” one paramedic said, and they both lifted her at the same time.

I jogged alongside the stretcher as they carried her out to the ambulance. The place seemed bigger now. The second we stepped out of the side door; quick flashes of light flickered in my face.

We deliberately came in through the side for privacy; the trial was going on, so we knew it was only a matter of time before they started hounding Oakley. They must have followed the ambulance.

Questions were fired out of the sea of reporters. Police officers stopped them from coming too close and shielded Oakley slightly. Their faces seemed blurred as I looked at them all at the same time, trying to see who was coming too close to her.

Anger rose inside me as they continued pushing forward to get a picture. Hadn’t she been through enough already? None of them cared about her, as long as they got the good story and the best picture it didn’t matter what that did to her. The extra stress and pressure of seeing her photo in the newspapers was the last thing she needed.

Sarah got straight in the ambulance, and I started to panic.

“Can I come too?” I asked, staring at Oakley lying deathly still. The thought of losing her was physically painful.

“Sorry,” the paramedic said, smiling apologetically as he slammed the door shut. Just before he closed it, I saw Oakley’s eyes flitter open. Was she properly awake now? Would she ask for me?

I spun around and sprinted back to my car. There was no point in trying to get them to allow me to come; Oakley needed to get to the hospital as soon as possible, and I wasn’t going to hold them up. Jasper’s footsteps thudded behind me.

Ripping the door open, I jumped in and started the car before I’d even shut the door. Thankfully Jasper had moved just as quickly. My heart hammered in my chest. All I wanted to do was to be with her already.

“What the fuck is going on?” Jasper shouted. His eyes had filled with tears, and he looked terrified.

“I dunno,” I mumbled in response. “She was alright before she went in, but I saw her look at him and then she seemed… I dunno.” I shook my head. I didn’t have any answers.

Jasper spat out a string of expletives, muttering about how much he hated his dad and wished he’d had the chance to ‘murder the bastard’.

I couldn’t disagree with that. If I could turn back time, 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 half way across the world. She wouldn’t have to worry about ever seeing them again, or panicking about the possibility of her dad calling her from prison.

“If anything happens to her…” Jasper trailed off, his face twisting in pain. I couldn’t even think about that. Nothing could happen to her. She had to be okay. “I don’t think she should carry on with the trial.”

“What?”

“It’s not worth this,” he said, shaking his head. “They’re going down with or without her testimony.”

“Maybe, but they’re more likely to get sent down with it. Especially Frank,” I spat. Saying his name burned my throat.

“I don’t give a fuck about them. I don’t want Oakley anywhere near that court. If they get off there are other ways of dealing with it.” The only other time I had seen him this angry was the night he found out what they had done to her.

I didn’t reply. There was no point. He would just get angrier. 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.

Jasper wouldn’t be happy about it, but Oakley was the most important person here. Whatever she needed to do to be able to move on, I was behind one hundred percent.

The tyres screeched as I turned hard and came to an abrupt stop in the hospital car park. We jumped out of the car and sprinted to the entrance.

“Oakley Farrell,” Jasper shouted, slamming into the reception desk. “She was brought in a minute ago. Where is she?”