Broken Truth

by Beth Ashworth

  Charlie stepped away from the garment on the floor and kicked it off to the side in disgust. She knew there was no way that she was ever going to put that dress anywhere near her body again. It was tainted with horrific memories she didn’t want to think about.

  Propping her leg up on the bed, Charlie pulled and twisted at the suspenders attached to her thigh high stockings. She didn’t have time for patience. She only cared about ridding herself of the painful memories.

  “Charlie, let me do it,” Lucy begged.

  Feeling the torturous pain in her chest, Charlie couldn’t even imagine the expression reflected across her face. She knew that if it were anywhere near as intense as the pain she felt inside, then it was almost definitely a frightening sight.

  Eventually unhooking all of the suspenders, she ripped the thigh high stockings from her body in a rush. She placed the thin scraps of fabric next to the dress she had kicked away earlier.

  “Let me undo the eyelets on the back of your basque,” Lucy said, lifting her hands to the top of the garment.

  Looking straight ahead, Charlie caught sight of herself in the mirror and froze. Her chest tightened as she studied her reflection. She was shocked to see how ghostly pale she looked. Her eyes were swollen and her skin showed signs of soreness from her constant tears.

  Batting Lucy’s hands away from her body, Charlie padded into the en-suite bathroom and slammed the door behind her without a word. She walked over towards the beige tiled shower enclosure and switched on the hot water. Still clothed in her lingerie, Charlie entered the enclosure and stood directly under the spray.

  She welcomed the feeling of the burning water as it cascaded over her skin. She needed to burn away the traces of Callum from her body. She needed to rid herself of his touch.

  Letting her emotions run rife with her mind, Charlie slumped to the tiled floor of the shower and cried. She wasn’t sure what she had done to warrant the pain she now felt. She had been broken by the man she loved. There were no words that Charlie could use to describe her feelings as she sat under the water.

  At least the silence was helping to cleanse her mind.

  Staring blankly out of the window on the train, Charlie vaguely registered everyone around her getting to their feet. She had unknowingly spent the entire two hour journey watching nothing of importance out of the window.

  “Charlie? We are getting off now,” Lucy called from her standing position in the aisle.

  Snapping out of her trance, Charlie scooted across the seats towards the aisle. She stood up and retrieved her weekend bag from the overhead storage compartment and looked towards her friends for direction.

  Following them off the train and off the platform, Charlie felt the nerves fluttering animatedly around her stomach. She was going back to the penthouse; Callum’s penthouse. The question on her mind was what was she going to find when she returned back there.

  Would Callum be home?

  Would he try and talk her round?

  Would she forgive him?

  The questions plagued Charlie’s already confused mind.

  Walking out of train station, she followed both Amelia and Lucy as they approached the taxi rank. They spoke to the driver momentarily before they opened the passenger door and the three of them took a seat inside of the black cab.

  Sitting in between both girls, Charlie allowed her brain to wander in and out of normality. She was trying to psych herself up ready for her return to the penthouse. She had to be ready for whatever outcome was waiting for her.

  “Don’t even think for one second that we are letting you go back to that apartment,” Amelia muttered from her seat beside her. “You’re coming back to stay with me for as long you need. Lucy and I are going to go and fetch you some stuff later,” she explained, placing a reassuring hand on her leg.

  Charlie gave Amelia a small appreciative nod.

  “You can’t avoid talking to us forever,” Lucy sighed. “You will need to tell us what happened eventually.”

  “I think she’s still in shock.” Amelia glanced over to Lucy, “You know how she normally goes into shutdown mode when she’s upset or panicked? I think this is just another version we haven’t seen before. She explodes like a volcano and then goes into her quiet time to try and piece herself back together.”

  “I know,” Lucy replied. “But... We don’t actually know what is going on here do we? We only know the one thing she told us and that’s it.”

  “Considering the fact that he has continuously been blowing up Charlie’s phone as well as ours, I’m deciding that he is as guilty as shit!” Amelia stated.

  “I don’t know if we are doing the right thing in ignoring his calls though,” Lucy sighed. “I mean... If she isn’t going to talk to us then maybe we should speak to him?”

  “Not a fucking chance,” Amelia spat. “We are on Charlie’s side remember? You know for a fact that she wouldn’t bullshit something like this. Besides, I always knew that bastard was dodgy from the start. I knew that eventually his true colours would show through.”

  Continuing to stare forwards impassively, Charlie tried to block out their conversation. She knew that they were discussing her, but she really couldn’t care enough to listen. She wanted to be left alone with her thoughts, so that she could think and plan her next move.

  Where was she going to live?

  What about all of their friends?

  Would she ever recover enough to move on?

  All of these questions required an answer from her at some point.

  Twenty

  Standing on the staircase in Amelia’s house, Charlie eavesdropped on the conversation she could hear between Amelia and Lucy in the kitchen.

  “Is he still ringing you?”

  “Yeah, I’ve had to switch my phone off. The bastard is driving me absolutely crazy. I’ve had continuous voicemails and missed calls. What about you?”

  “Turned mine off too. I haven’t listened to any of his messages yet, but Ollie called and said he sounded pretty desperate to speak to one of us.”

  “Shit! Ollie didn’t tell him that she was here did he?”

  “No... But Callum isn’t stupid, Mia. He knows she would never go to her family, so of course she would be staying with one of us.”

  “As long as he keeps his distance from her then we won’t have a problem.”

  “Well I think we should go and pick up some more of her stuff in a bit because Ollie mentioned a possibility of Callum catching a flight later today after some big meeting he has scheduled.”

  Charlie’s eyes bulged wide with sudden panic. She could feel her throat constricting the flow of air into her lungs. Gripping the banister next to her with extreme force, she sucked in long and steady breaths to calm herself.

  “Ok, we’ll go after I’ve had my coffee. I suppose the last thing we want is to run into him at the apartment. I don’t think I’d be able to stop my hand connecting with his face.”

  “I feel the same, but that wouldn’t achieve anything would it?”

  “Maybe not in your eyes, but it would certainly make me feel better...”

  A small smirk tugged at Charlie’s lips.

  “Don’t worry, Mia. By the sounds of it, our boys are about ready to rip him a new arsehole anyway. I’m sure he’ll get what’s coming to him...”

  “I’d rather do it myself though!”

  “Enough! Charlie will be down in a minute, so we need to change the subject.”

  There was a brief pause for a few minutes before she heard them start to talk again.

  “You reckon we can get her to speak to us today?”

  “I’m not sure... Hopefully?”

  Charlie rolled her eyes and slowly descended the stairs in search of the kitchen.

  Since their arrival back into Manchester yesterday, both girls had drastically quietened on any subject relating to Callum. They had swung by the penthouse yesterday afternoon without telling her so that they could pick up some of her necessities
. She wasn’t pleased by the sudden secret society, but knew the reasons behind it.

  “Morning,” Lucy smiled as Charlie padded into the kitchen. “How are you feeling? Do you want something to drink?”

  “A cup of tea would be lovely,” she said, sliding onto an empty wooden chair around the breakfast table.

  “Hallelujah!” Amelia clapped from her seat. “I’d thought we’d lose you for a lot longer than that. Welcome back.”

  Charlie smiled sheepishly. “I just needed some time to get my head around things. I’m not fine by a long shot, but at least I’m actually coming to terms with it now.”

  Amelia nodded.

  “Mia and I are going to pick up some more stuff in a little while,” Lucy said, placing a mug of freshly brewed tea in front of Charlie. “Is there anything specific that you want us to pick up?”

  She thought for a moment before shaking her head. “No thank you. I think I just need clothes at the moment. Everything else can stay put until I’ve sorted stuff out.”

  “By the way, I spoke to Xavier this morn-”

  “Oh shit!” Charlie exclaimed, interrupting Amelia mid-sentence. She pushed her chair away from the table and got to her feet. “It’s Monday right? I’m late for work! Shit! Shit! Shit!”

  “It’s alright,” Amelia said, trying to calm her down. “I spoke to Xavier this morning and told him you probably wouldn’t be in for a few days. I didn’t go into the details, but he knows that something has happened between you and Callum. He said he would speak to your boss and get her to call you if necessary. Lucy and I also managed to pull some favours for today and tomorrow.”

  “Thank God,” Charlie said, clasping her hand over her chest. She sunk back down onto her chair feeling relieved.

  “You seriously can’t expect to go to work at the moment?” Lucy queried with raised eyebrows.

  Charlie shrugged. “I guess not, but I just thought it would take my mind off things.”

  “It would be Callum’s first target,” Amelia warned.

  “What do you mean?” Charlie looked between both Amelia and Lucy feeling confused.

  “We just know that he isn’t going to give up as easily as you might think,” Lucy said, lifting her mug to her lips to take a sip.

  “I know,” Charlie mumbled, casting her eyes down to the table.

  Unfortunately, she knew all too well that Callum was not going to go away anytime soon. He was relentless in everything that he did and she knew that she would be no exception to that.

  Amelia leaned over to grasp Charlie’s hand. “Babe, are you ready to tell us what happened?”

  Running her finger around the rim of her mug, she nodded. “I guess so...”

  Sitting on Amelia’s sofa with her feet up, Charlie flicked the page over on her e-reader. When her friends disappeared a few hours ago to collect more of her belongings, she took the opportunity to immerse herself into the fictional world of her favourite book characters while it was quiet.

  Although in reality, Charlie could always read regardless of the noise levels around her. She believed the excuse of quietness to be more fitting than the real reason why she was reading. The truth was that Charlie found her books to be an escape; they were a sanctuary for her. After she had spent well over an hour in tears trying to relive and explain Saturday night to her best friends, she knew that she needed to enter her sanctuary for her own peace of mind.

  Although she already knew that they wouldn’t take the full news of his wife and marriage well, nothing had prepared her for their reactions when they found out that he also had a child.

  Three hours later and Charlie was making significant progress with her story. She just happened to catch sight of the clock on the wall and noticed how late in the afternoon it was starting to become. Glancing at the landline telephone next to Amelia’s television, she pondered whether to call one of their phones to check in and see how they were doing. Usually a simple text would have solved the problem, but in this case she didn’t have her mobile phone.

  On their return from London, Lucy had decided to take control of the device for a few days, so that she could divert and ignore the explosion of calls received from Callum. They had figured that while she was trying to digest everything, it would be one less thing for her to worry about.

  The shrill sound of the doorbell echoed throughout the whole of Amelia’s cosy two up - two down house. Charlie jumped to her feet at the sound and discarded her e-reader on the sofa cushions behind her. She assumed that the girls were laden with too much stuff, preventing them from opening the door for themselves.

  The old wooden floorboards creaked under her bare feet as she walked into the narrow hallway leading up to the front door. She smiled as she passed a mountain of shoes stacked neatly beside the staircase. Her friend may have a bad shoe obsession, but at least she was tidy in how she kept them organised.

  Grabbing the spare house key off of the coat hook, Charlie moved towards the door handle. Just as she was about to push the key into the lock, a barrage of loud fists started to rain down on the front door causing her to jump away alarmed. Instantly she knew that it was not Amelia or Lucy waiting for her on the other side.

  “Charlie!”

  Her body froze at the sound of Callum’s voice as it filtered through the door into the small hallway. She felt her gut clench as he continued to hammer blows into the solid wood.

  “Charlie, open the door!”

  Backing as far away as she could, Charlie sought refuge in the far corner of the hallway. She knew that she couldn’t go back into the living room now in case Callum tried to peer through the window blinds that she remembered leaving open earlier today. She knew that for her own safety she was better off playing along that she wasn’t home.

  “I know you are in there, Baby. We really need to talk this through properly!”

  Paralysed to the wall in fear, Charlie closed her eyes and willed this nightmare to end. She was alone and trapped inside her best friend’s house while her crazy ex-boyfriend pounded the heck out of the front door.

  “Please, open the fucking door!”

  She flinched at the sound of his voice as it started to crack.

  “You haven’t even given me a chance to explain anything. I promise you, Baby, it wasn’t what it seemed. You’ve got it all wrong...”

  Putting her hands over her ears, she tried to block out his words.

  “God damn it, Charlie!”

  A loud bang suddenly shook the old wooden doorframe, sending Charlie to the floor in a shivering ball. She assumed that she heard what could only have been Callum’s foot coming into contact with the door.

  “Damn it, Charlie! Do not fucking do this to us! Don’t give up on everything we had just because you’re too stubborn to listen to the truth. Don’t... Please... Don’t...”

  She heard his voice break at the end as he finally lost his control. Tears started to leak out of her eyes as she continued to listen to him shatter into millions of little pieces.

  “I fucking love you!” he cried. “I want us to have our future!”

  She could feel her heart shredding with each broken word uttered from Callum’s lips. She had to keep believing that it was all lies. Every word he continued to speak was just a lie.

  Repeating the words married and daughter continuously in her head like a mantra, Charlie fought hard to stop herself from falling into the trap Callum was setting out. She knew that he wanted her to give in and that he wanted her back with him, but she wasn’t going to do it because she couldn’t bear to give him the satisfaction.

  “You’re not going to open up are you?” He hit the door once more with his fist before she heard his defeated sigh. “I’m warning you now, Charlie. You know me well enough to know that I’m going to fight this until the bitter end. I love you too much to allow you to just walk out of my life.”

  She exhaled a large breath at the sound of his footsteps retreating.

  Staggering to her feet, Charlie crep
t towards the front door. She leant against the frame and cast a glance through the peephole. She could see the back of Callum’s tailored suit as he walked out of the front garden towards what she assumed to be a rental car.

  Bracing her hands on either side of the door, she looked to the floor and shook her head. She knew that this was nothing compared to what she was going to endure over the next few weeks, months, possibly even years.

  The good news was that she had won round one. He was going for now...

  Twenty One

  “That motherfucker turned up at Mia’s house!”

  “Avi!” Charlie scolded. “Please can you keep your voice down? I don’t want the entire shop to hear what’s going on with my private life.”

  “Shit... I’m sorry,” he apologised. “I just can’t get over this. I can’t believe Callum was fucking married and stringing you along all this time.”

  “Tell me about it,” Charlie mumbled.

  “Are you still hurting?” Xavier asked, sliding his arm around her shoulders. “You don’t have to be here today you know? I can speak to Imogen if you want to go home?” She tensed beneath his touch as a small tear slid down her cheek. Realising his mistake, Xavier pulled her body against his in a tight embrace. “I’m sorry,” he continued to apologise. “I didn’t mean home. I meant go to Amelia’s.”

  “It’s ok,” she sniffed. “I just thought that coming back to work would take my mind off things a little bit. You know, just getting back to normality.”

  “It’s only Wednesday,” Xavier said, running his hand gently through her hair. “Nobody is expecting you to be as right as rain after a few days. I wasn’t aware of what happened, but I knew it was serious. I told Imogen not to expect you back until at least next week which she was fine with.”

  “I’m just afraid of being in her house by myself,” she admitted into his chest. “Amelia and Lucy both went back to work today, so there won’t be anybody home. I don’t know whether I’ll be able to stop myself if he turns up at the house again.”