Beautiful Perfection (Beautifully Unbroken Book 2)

by Brittle, D M

  Case number 15896.

  Cooper Henderson diary entry for prosecution.

  Evidence log number 33.

  “This morning was the first day in my keep Jo safe from Sara plan. I turned up at the studio knowing that she was due there at any minute and waited for her in the canteen along with Marcus and the rest of the guys. I can’t say that she seemed happy to see me when she arrived. I sat down next to her and handed her a cup of tea, she did however look concerned at the state of me, I shrugged it off as nothing which I think she bought, with how my life was lately I suppose that most people thought I deserved a good beating anyway. Jo seemed guarded but didn’t once ask me to leave or tell me that I was making her feel uncomfortable, thank God because I am invested in this now until I find Sara and god knows when that may be. I hung around for the rest of the day and everything was working out just right; that was until we stepped out onto the parking lot and saw the state of Jo’s new car. Someone had taken a knife to each and every single tyre and keyed along the paintwork. Only I knew exactly who had done this. How could I tell them that it was Sara? That would make me just as guilty as she was, so I kept quiet and showed my concern; only that didn’t work, Jo approached me and got right into my face accusing me of being the one who did this, of course it would make sense that it was me, after all, as Jo said in her own words; I have done worse to her.

  Seeing Jo so upset today was gut wrenching, she didn’t deserve this, she didn’t deserve any of it, she only deserved to be happy, why couldn’t she just be happy?

  In that precise moment I came so close to confessing everything to her. All about how Sara had turned up begging for my help, about how I was here because Sara wanted her dead and I was trying to protect her, I wanted so desperately to tell her about how all I have ever wanted, was for Jo to love me the way that I was so deeply in love with her. But I couldn’t; the devil within me would not allow it, I was a bad person and I deserved bad things, if I were to die today because I had saved Jo’s life, then there would be no better way for me to leave this world, and that was as far as the truth was ever going to go.”

  Case number 15896.

  Cooper Henderson diary entry for prosecution.

  Evidence log number 34.

  “I feel like a stalker. I have been following Jo around all week without her having the slightest idea. So far, I have followed her to a wedding boutique, a florist and to and from rehearsals all week, I have offered her a ride each day but she was back to ignoring my texts; I can see why, Blake would be more than angry if he knew that she was spending time with me, but he would end up being more than grateful if he knew I was only doing it to protect her.

  I have also stood and watched her jog in the park and then go grocery shopping, I don’t know how I have managed to stay anonymous but somehow I have. The only time I haven’t had eyes on Jo is when she is in her apartment or rehearsing in the studio. During those times I sit outside and keep an eye on who is coming and going. Sara has seen me on numerous occasions watching her and would speed off hastily giving me no chance of following her. I still have no idea where she is staying; she is very good at slipping away from me whenever I would follow her. I am beginning to get tired of hanging around, but it has to be done, I owed that much to Jo.

  Tonight was Jo’s first live show, I breathed a sigh of relief that we had almost got through the first week unscathed. I sat backstage as I watched Jo shine up on stage like the star that we all knew that she was. I feel proud of her, it’s weird to feel something like pride for someone who doesn’t know how much I love her, but I really well and truly do feel so proud.

  After the show we all headed to the little Italian place that Marcus always likes to use, I pulled out the seat next to Jo and sat down as if I hadn’t seen her for the past week but her mind was occupied, she didn’t seem to want to talk to anyone and eventually told me that she was missing Blake like crazy. She also told me how guilty she feels for talking to me knowing that Blake would hate it. Not long after, Jo decided that she wanted to call it a night. I somehow managed to convince her that it was safer for me to take her home, which she eventually accepted, so tonight was another night done, another night that I know I have managed to keep Jo safe from the wrath of Sara.

  Case number 15896.

  Cooper Henderson diary entry for prosecution.

  Evidence log number 35.

  “I hadn’t heard from Jo for the past few days. I had been texting her but she never replies, I have still watched her as she left her apartment for a run or to fetch some groceries. She was beginning to look tired and worn out and I wondered whether Sara was using other ways to get to her which I wasn’t aware of; so I called Sara, but she wasn’t taking my calls either.

  So this morning I decided to bite the bullet and show up at Jo’s rehearsals. Acting like nothing had been going on was hard, but I needed to keep face. I stood outside her dressing room and waited for her to emerge. When she opened the door she wasn’t smiling, she stormed past me as if I had done something to offend her. When I finally got her to stop and talk to me she was crying. Her beautiful face was wet with tears caused by someone trashing her room. They hadn’t only trashed her room but had torn up her clothes, crushed flower petals in to the carpet and used Jo’s lipstick to write the word ‘slut’ on her mirror. She had been there, Sara had this time got too close and I hadn’t been close enough to prevent it. Jo yelled at me over and over that I was responsible; she believed that I had done that to her, she couldn’t be more wrong. Jo continued to walk out of the building even though I was begging her to stop but she wouldn’t wait, she wouldn’t stop walking and I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach that Sara must have been waiting somewhere to finish what she started.

  As I approached where she stood I could hear the revving of an engine, I turned to see the black SUV that Sara was driving waiting for her down the street.

  I yelled as I ran towards Jo to stay where she was, I begged her not to place a foot on that tarmac but she wouldn’t listen, she just would not listen to me. The car came speeding towards her at full speed as Jo stood still in shock in the middle of the road. With the car coming as fast as it could I wrapped my arms around Jo and pulled her with me as we both crashed to the concrete. I opened my eyes just as Sara sped off down the road. I had saved her life. I had saved her from Sara who would have killed her if I hadn’t just done what I had. We both lay in silence for a few seconds trying to digest the fact that we could have both just been killed with one hit of the car. Jo was alive and it was me that had saved her.”

  Case number 15896.

  Cooper Henderson telephone call to defendant Sara McDonnell for prosecution.

  Evidence log number 36.

  “Sara, it’s over. You have until tomorrow lunch time to return the car and disappear or I will be contacting the police. I never wanted it to end like this, but you did this, remember that you did all of this. I meant it when I promised you that I would look after you, you should have believed me; we had something, you and I, we actually had something that could have been so special but again you let your stupid selfish bitter mind get the better of you. Jo is not responsible for anything that you may be feeling, you brought it all on yourself you really are a stupid selfish bitch, do you hear me? You told me that you weren’t crazy, that you didn’t need to be locked up in a clinic and to think that I actually began to believe you, I actually brought into that shit, I actually wanted to love you, I wanted to love you and forget all about Jo, well you know what? Not any more, it ends and it ends right now. Shall I tell you something else sweetheart? They need to lock you up and throw away the key. We could have been happy together, I think that eventually I could have loved you, just the same as I love Jo, we could have made something of ourselves me and you and yeah you heard that right sweetheart, I love Jo and I have done so for a long time now, but I would have tried for you, I would have tried to stop loving her if you hadn’t have done what you have. You make me sick Sa
ra; you really do make me sick.

  If you had just put your stupid bitter jealousy behind you, then the future could have been a lot different to what it is going to be now. You made the choice Sara, always remember that; you made the choice.”

  *~*~*

  I dropped the papers into my lap and for the first time since Cooper’s death I allowed myself to cry for him. I had always protested that Cooper wasn’t responsible for trying to harm me, even when the police were adamant that they had sufficient evidence that put him as much to blame as Sara, I knew in my heart that Cooper would never have intentionally tried to hurt me and even though I still to this day will never be able to forget what he did to me on that horrific night at Sugar, to finally see that he was innocent of my attempted murder was bittersweet.

  The same words continued to replay in my mind, I had read so many pages but all I constantly kept going back to was “if I were to die today because I had saved Jo’s life, then there would be no better way for me to leave this world.”

  To read those words cut so deep. He had died at the hands of Sara after saving my life. She had taken the wheel and swerved his car off the road when the police were on their tail until the car had hit a tree sealing Cooper’s fate, so re-reading that sentence over and over again really did hurt but the more my mind processed everything that I had read, the more my feelings for Cooper changed until eventually that hurt was suddenly met with anger. Cooper could have stopped all of this at any given moment, he could have stopped it from the minute that Sara turned up at his apartment and threatened my life but instead and for a reason that no amount of evidence could provide, he had continued to allow her to stay there, to threaten me and to ruin his own life. As the tear began to fall faster my anger towards him grew higher and higher. “Why, Cooper?” I whispered harshly. “Why didn’t you stop this when you had the chance? Why did you let her do this to us both? You could have stopped this Cooper but you didn’t, why?” I stood abruptly and began tearing the papers with anger, screwing up what was left before throwing them away from me as my body shook, “why did you carry on until she killed you Cooper? Why!” I fell to my knees and placed my head into my hands as I continued to cry angry tears.

  I felt the warmth of Blake’s arms wrap around me gently as he knelt alongside me and held me in his arms. “It’s okay beautiful, it’s okay, I’m here for you, I promise I will get you through this.” I clung to Blake as I continued to cry and Blake continued to comfort me, gently rocking me in his arms as I cried for Cooper, five months after he had lost his life at the hands of Sara. At some point Blake had lifted me from the floor and carried me back to bed where he continued to hold me until I could cry no more tears. I had fallen into a deep and dreamless sleep where my mind was free to process everything that I had read that evening.

  *~*~*

  I woke the following morning with a mixed array of emotions, the anger that I felt after reading the evidence still remained firmly at the forefront of my mind but that was now joined by an overwhelming feeling of guilt. Last night Blake had held me while I sat and cried for Cooper. He had sat with me in his arms and rocked me until I had cried every single tear that fell from my eyes; I couldn’t even begin to imagine how it must have made him feel to see his wife crying uncontrollably over another man. One thing that I needed Blake to understand however was that the tears I had shed last night changed absolutely nothing about the way I felt about Cooper. My anger stemmed from the fact that Cooper would still have been alive today if he had just done the right thing and gone straight to the police, there was no question in my mind about that. The only sadness that I felt came from not grieving for him at the time of his death along with not going to his funeral.

  I hated him so much when the police had told me that he had been working alongside Sara, it seemed so feasible, so convincing because he always happened to be there, every single time that something would happen to me, Cooper was always standing on the sidelines. I hate that he hid the truth which therefore cost him his life, but had I have known about what he was hiding at that time, then when he died, I would have grieved for him, and I would have stood at his graveside on the day of his funeral because no matter what I think of him now and what I thought of him the weeks leading up to his death, Cooper had been a good friend to me right up until he took Sara under his wing.

  I grabbed my robe and headed into the kitchen where Blake was busy making breakfast. He was stood in just his boxers and a t-shirt as he stood facing the stove. I walked straight over to him and wrapped my arms around his waist, I heard him put down the pan before he turned to face me and placed his lips to my hair inhaling deeply as he kissed me while his arms wrapped around me; we didn’t speak, we just held each other for a brief moment before he released me and turned his attention back to the stove.

  “Breakfast is ready, take a seat and I’ll bring it over.” I couldn’t tell what he was thinking or even if he was mad at me for how I behaved last night. I turned and headed to the table where I sat and watched as he walked over with two plates full of breakfast. He placed my plate in front of me and walked around the table taking the seat opposite.

  “We never did get around to eating last night and you need your food, those babies are getting bigger.” I looked up at Blake who gave me a nervous smile before putting a forkful of egg into his mouth.

  “This looks lovely, thank you.” I picked up my fork and began to eat, there was no denying that there was an uncomfortable silence growing between us as we both focused on our plates and remained silent. My eyes wondered to the worktop that Blake had been stood at while making breakfast. On top of the worktop were the papers that I had torn and screwed up last night in anger, Blake had somehow fixed them all back together and they now sat in a neat pile.

  “Do you forgive him?” Blake asked suddenly as he continued to eat. I looked up but Blake’s eyes were still on his plate of food.

  “What?” I asked nervously.

  “Cooper. Do you forgive him for everything that he did to you? For drugging you, almost raping you and for keeping everything from you that Sara was doing to make your life a living hell while I wasn’t here to protect you, which in turn made him out to be the hero. Do you forgive Cooper all of those things?” I could hear the fear once again in Blake’s voice, the fear that he had allowed to surface last night, it was still there simmering inside of him.

  “No,” I answered simply, Blake finally lifted his gaze to me, he seemed surprised by my answer, he had obviously thought that my tears for Cooper last night were tears of forgiveness. “He will always be the person who drugged me, almost raped me and took in Sara who wanted me dead. No matter what I read last night, I can’t forgive him for trying to play the hero, I could have died on so many different occasions and Cooper being there to stop it from happening doesn’t make him a hero, it makes him a coward. I didn’t cry last night because I forgive him Blake, I cried because I was so furious with him for not doing the right thing. I cried because he made me hate him when we had always been such good friends and because he could see how much I was hurting yet he did nothing about it when he could have put a stop to it at any given second. He wasn’t the hero the day he pushed me from the road Blake, a hero would never have let it get that far, a hero would have done the right thing from the very start. So no, I don’t forgive him, I feel sad that I never got to say goodbye properly, but I cannot forgive him, ever.”

  Blake nodded as he processed everything that I had just said to him.

  “You are my hero Blake; you always have been and you always will be and, no matter what Cooper wrote about me, he was seriously fucked up and doesn’t ever deserve my forgiveness. If Sara had have killed me, he would have been just as guilty as she was.” I reached across the table and took Blake’s hand in mine.

  “There is though, just one thing that I need to do and I need you to be with me Blake, I can’t do it alone, and I know that I sound like I am contradicting myself when I say this.” I took a deep b
reath before continuing, “I need to visit Cooper’s grave.” Blake opened his mouth to speak but I butted back in before he could tell me no, “I’m not saying today or tomorrow, I am not saying when I need to go there, but I need to say goodbye to him properly, I need to say goodbye to the old Cooper, the Cooper who helped me the night that I got the call about my dad, the Cooper who welcomed me back with open arms when I returned from London. I hated him so much when he died that I never said goodbye to him, but once I do, I can forget about him, move on, see Sara get what’s coming to her and continue my life as it should be; with you.”