“Jason, please stop!” she cried out turning her face away from his. “Please don’t do this.”
“I know you still love me,” he said breathlessly as he began to kiss her neck, his hands slide down to her backside. He gripped it firmly and he pushed himself up against her. “Don’t fight it, Ally. You just need to remember.”
Ally thought her heart was going to burst, it was hammering so hard. Hot tears began to sting her eyes making her vision become blurry.
“”Jason, please don’t do this!” she begged again but her pleas didn’t seem to reach him at all. He reached down and began to drag her dress up her legs. “No! No, no! Jason please stop! Please don’t do this!”
“Ally, you just need to remember how good we are together,” he said grabbing her face and slamming his mouth against hers, so hard he burst one of her lips. She could taste the iron of her blood, fill her mouth and it was enough to snap her into action. She was not going to let this happen. She brought up her knee and connected with him.
“You fucking bitch!” he cried out as he doubled over. She took this chance to get free from him. She ran into the living room looking for her cordless phone when she reached the cradle, it wasn’t in it. She spun around quickly searching for the phone. Finally she spotted it on the sofa.
She almost reached the sofa when she felt like she had been hit by a steam roller as Jason tackled her. She crashed to the ground, banging her head off the leg of the coffee table knocking it over on its side
She felt disorientated and dazed.
She could feel herself being lifted from the floor. As her mind began to clear, she realised Jason was carrying her. Where was he taking her? she wondered, terror ripping through her unresponsive body. She knew she should be fighting but fear had gripped her and her body wouldn’t do what her mind was screaming to do.
When they reached her bedroom he threw her down on the bed and climbed on top of her.
“No!” a terrified sob escaped from her mouth before he clamped down on her mouth with his hand.
“You could have done this the easy way,” he said his face barely inches from her. “All you need to do is remember. Remember how good we felt together. I just want to show you.” He removed his hand from her mouth and kissed her hard once again.
“Jason, please I am begging you- don’t do this,” Ally sobbed unable to hold back the panic anymore as she turned her face from his. “Please stop. Please I am begging you. Please don’t do this!”
Holding her down with one hand, He pulled at the shoulder of her dress, tearing it from her body, revealing the lace of her bra. He pressed his lips against the swell of her breast as he reached down and pulled up her dress. She tried to struggle but he was just too big and strong for her to fight off. She sobbed and begged but he was determined.
He reached for her panties and gripping them, he pulled them hard until they tore and he pulled them from her body. Ally fought and fought but she just couldn’t budge him. She could hear his zipper being opened and she sobbed harder.
As he positioned himself against her, he looked down into her eyes.
“Jason, please don’t do this,” she begged her voice barely whisper. “If you ever loved me. Please don’t do this,”
He stared into her eyes and something changed. He looked down at Ally and saw the tears rolling down her beautiful face and the blood trickling from her mouth and the realisation of what he was doing seemed to wash over his face. The angry, determined look in his face disappeared and a look shame overtook it.
“Oh my God,” he said staring down at her, the tears now evident in his eyes too. “Ally, sweetheart, I am so sorry.”
He pulled back and quickly climbed off her. He sat on the end of the bed and buried his face in his hands.
“Sweet Jesus,” he cried. “What have I done?”
Ally scramble away from him curling herself into a ball as far away from him as she could.
“Ally, I am so sorry,” he said finally lifting his face from his hands and turning back to look at Ally. “I never wanted to hurt you.”
Ally didn’t respond. She could even look at him. She just closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around herself tightly as she rocked back and forth on the bed.
“Ally, please,” he reached out to her but she recoiled from his touch and he knew he had ruined everything.
“I am so sorry.” He stood up and walked to the door, his shoulders slumped and his spirit clearly broken. He paused at the door for a moment and looked back at Ally. Without another word, he left.
She heard Jason's huge feet crunch on the broken glass in the hallway. She wait for more sounds but everything was silent and she knew he was gone.
Ally finally let go and sobbed like her heart was breaking. She climbed from the bed and slumped into the corner of her room, she curled herself into a ball and sobbed until there were no more tears.
Chapter 21
It was a little before 7am on the Sunday morning when Cole arrived at Ally’s apartment. He was going to buzz the intercom but he remember the code she had typed in a few days earlier. Besides, he was afraid if she knew it was him, she wouldn’t buzz him in. He knew there was a 50/50 shot if she would even open the door when he knocked on her apartment door itself.
He had been freaking out since he got her message the night before. He knew she was angry as hell. He called her and called her but she wouldn’t answer her phone. He knew he only had himself to blame. He needed to come clean with her. Tell her everything and hope she loved him enough to give him a yet another chance.
The lift door opened and he nervously stepped out. With what he had to say, she was going to be even angrier than his just standing her up. And she had every right to be angry for that and what he was about to tell her.
When he got the call from Steph on the way to the airport for his flight back to Dublin on the Saturday evening, he had pulled up Ally’s number immediately but he couldn’t place the call.
He didn’t want to tell her over the phone like that. If she was ever going to understand and give him a chance he had to tell her face to face.
When he got to the hospital he was told he needed to switch of his phone, so he had missed her messages. When he switched his phone back on the first couple of message she had left made him smile. But her last text made his heart almost stop. He began calling her immediately but the phone just rang out again and again.
As soon as he got clearance for his private plane to leave he headed straight back. The moment he landed he began calling her again but still she refused to take his call.
As he made his way to her apartment door, he paused several times running through what he was going to say in his head. He prayed he could make her see sense. But he could put it off no longer.
When he reached her door the worry and anxiety he was feeling was quickly replaced with a feeling of panic and dread when he found her door ajar. Dread morphed into complete terror when he opened the door and found the broken bowl and the contents of her bag spread all over the hall floor.
“Ally!” he called out, panic now firmly gripping him as he rushed further into the apartment. He stopped dead when he saw the coffee table turned on its side in the living room. His stomach heaved. “Oh, fuck no! ALLY! ALLY, WHERE ARE YOU?”
He pulled is phone from his pocket and quickly rang Ally’s number.
“Please pick up,” he prayed out loud as he waited for the call to connect. When it finally did, he could hear the phone ringing. It was coming from the hallway. He rushed back out and found the phone on the hall floor.
Where the hell is she? He thought as he made his way back to the living room, calling her name out again and again.
Finally, he made his way to her bed room and stopped cold. First thing he noticed was the bed clothes were a mess, but then his eyes dropped to the torn panties on the floor and he could feel the blood drain from his body as a mixture of grief and pure anger coarse through him.
“I am going t
o fucking kill him!” he growled as he reached down and picked the panties off the floor. Images crashed into his mind of what possibly happened here. He knew this was Jason’s doing. The images of him with Ally was more than he could stomach as he ran to the bathroom and threw up, barely making it to the toilet.
He turned to the sink and splash water on his face and he stared at his reflection in the mirror.
This would’ve never happened if you had been here like you promised, he thought to himself bitterly. In a moment of pure rage, he lashed out and smashed the mirror with his bare fist.
“Damn it!” he exclaimed as he watched the blood trickle down is fingers, dripping into the sink. He switched on the tap and ran his hand under the water. It was when he knocked off the tap he heard a faint sound. He walked to the door of the en-suite and listened, waiting to hear the sound again. At last he did. It sounded like whimpering and it appeared to be coming from the far side of the bed.
He hurried around to the bed and was shocked to find a very shaken Ally curled into a tiny ball, lodged between her bedside table and the wall.
“Ally, sweetheart” Cole said bending down to her but as soon as he touched her she started screaming. He quickly pulled her to him and wrapped her tightly in his arms. She fought and kicked and screamed. “Ally it’s me. It’s me Cole.”
She continued to fight and scream. Cole fought to catch her wildly flailing head and look into her eyes. When he finally managed, Ally's eyes looked at him with a hollow fright. As recognition settled in, her fight ended and she began to sob, burying her face in his chest.
“I got you, baby,” he spoke softly, lifting her from the floor and sitting on the bed, her wrapped around him tightly, like she was clinging on to life itself. “It’s okay now, I am here. I am here.” I should have been here last night, Cole thought in his mind.
When the sobbing eased and she began to calm down, Cole tilted her face up to his and he winced when he saw the bump in her forehead, her swollen lip and the very clear finger marks either side of her mouth. The mental image of Jason pinning her down, holding her so hard that he marked her once again, made Cole’s stomach heave.
He looked down and both her wrists were bruised too. He swore to himself.
“Ally, what happened?” he asked, finally finding the words. He already knew the answer but he wasn’t sure he was ready to hear her say it. “Did Jason do this to you?”
“I thought he was you,” she cried again and again until she drifted off to sleep in his arm, completely exhausted. She slept for a little over an hour and it was a somewhat fitful sleep but clearly a needed one, and in the security of Cole's embrace, His heart broke even more when he moved her to the bed so she could be more comfortable, and she started panicking in her sleep. But he once again folded her in his arms and she calmed again.
When she woke up, he carried her from the bedroom out to the sofa. He grabbed the throw from the back of the sofa and wrapped it around Ally, pulling her closer to him on the sofa and he waited patiently for her to open up and talk to him.
Finally she turned her face up to his. Her delicate face was streaked with a mixture of tears and mascara. Her mouth was swollen and bloody. And there was a considerable bump of her forehead. It was a sight that broke Cole’s heart. But he didn’t let it show on his face, instead he just smiled at her reassuringly. He was unsure of what to say, not wanting to upset her, but desperately needing to know what happened.
Ally looked into the eyes of the man she so dearly loved. He was hurting. He needed answers. She took a deep breath and started.
“He just turned up last night,” she finally said and closed her eyes, the memories of everything that happened the night before were running through her mind again and again. “He pushed his way in. I’m so sorry.”
“Why are you sorry?” Cole asked, his heart ached with her words. This was all my fault he thought. If he had been there. If he had just called her. If she had just gone to London with him. If any of these things had happened, she would have never answered the door to Jason.
“I should have never come back here,” she sobbed, the tears breaking free once again. “I promised you I would be careful, but I was drunk and angry. I’m so sorry Cole.”
“Ally, this isn’t your fault!” Cole exclaimed, as a mixture of guilt and anger flood through him.
“If I had pressed charges last week,” Ally said lifting her head and looking at Cole. “He might have got the message, but I was stupid. I didn’t want anyone to know he cheated on me. I was so embarrassed.”
“Ally, he did this. You are not to blame one bit,"” Cole said taking her face gently in his hands. “You didn’t want this. You didn’t ask for this. He came into your home. He force himself on you…”
“No! He didn’t!” she quickly corrected him.
“What do you mean?” Cole asked, looking at Ally in confusion.
“He couldn’t…” she continued, closing her eyes. She couldn’t look Cole in the face as she talked about this. “I mean, he had me on the bed. And I begged him again and again not to, but I really thought he was going to. But then suddenly he stopped. Like he snapped out of it. He just stopped.”
“So he didn’t…” Cole said as a tiny wave of relief wash over him.
“No,” she confirmed. “He said he was sorry.”
“HE WAS SORRY!!???!” Cole exclaimed. “He forced his way into your home, he attacked you and he is sorry!!!??? I will fucking kill him!!!”
He jumped up from the sofa and began to pace up and down, anger seeping from every inch of his body.
“No, Cole, please…” Ally begged as she began to sob harder. “Please don’t… please don’t leave me.”
“Ally, Ally, it’s okay,” he quickly tried to calm her back down. “Everything is fine but we need to call the police and then we have to get you to hospital.”
“NO!” Ally cried. “I don’t need to go to a hospital and I am not going to the police.” Ally was quickly on her feet and pacing. She began ranting how it was her word against Jason’s and how they would wonder why she hadn’t contacted them before now.
Cole got up from the sofa and stood in front of her, stopping her in her tracks. Taking her by the arms he bent his knees so he was looking her straight in the face.
“Breathe,” he instructed her calmly. “It’s okay, we can do this together. I’ll be with you every step of the way.”
“Cole, please don’t make me does this,” Ally said, looking him square in the face. “I can’t do it. I can’t have everyone know what happened. This would kill my grandparents. Please, Cole, please don’t make me do this.”
Cole sighed and stared at Ally for a few moments.
“Fine,” he finally spoke. “On one condition.”
“Okay,” Ally swallowed nervously.
“Let me call Dan,” Cole replied. “Let him check you over, that way I can be sure you are okay.”
“Cole I am okay...”she began to protest but he stopped her with a finger against her lips.
“Please,” he whispered. “You have a bump on your head and you are in shock. Just do this for me.”
“Okay,” she reluctantly agreed and try her hardest to smile. “I need a shower first.”
“You go have a shower,” Cole smiled. “I will call Dan.”
Ally turned and walked towards the bathroom.
“Ally,” Cole called before she reached the bathroom. “I love you.”
Ally smiled but she didn’t respond. She turned and walked into the en-suite and closed the door behind her.
She was surprised to see her bathroom mirror cracked, but when she saw her reflection in the broken segments of mirror, she gasped. She looked terrible, but as soon the tears began to pool in her eyes, she could no longer see her reflection.
She pulled her dress over her head and removed her bra. She looked down at her body and saw deep scratch marks from where Jason grabbed her, when he had torn her panties from her body. She softly touched
the mark as the tears broke free and trickled down her face and the down on to her bare chest. She quickly wiped them away.
She reached in and turned on the taps in the shower and waited a moment before she stepped in, under the hot water. She let the water run over her and she began to scrub herself. She scrubbed harder and harder but she just could seem to make herself feel clean. She sobbed silently as her sink turned pick and raw and she tried to wash the memory of Jason’s touch from her body.
When her skin felt like it was on fire and was almost sore to touch, she dropped her wash cloth to the floor of the shower and slid down into the corner of the shower. Burying her face in her hands, she let go of her grief and sorrow and sobbed quietly into her hands.
The water grew colder forcing Ally from the shower. She emerged from her en-suite and was shocked to find Cole sitting on her bed waiting on her. He had pulled out a pair of grey jogging pants and a white t-shirt from her closet.
He smiled when he saw her emerge from the bathroom. Relieved she looked a little better and a lot calmer.
“Feeling better?” he asked as he stood and walked to her. He bent down to kiss her but froze when she flinched as he touched her. “Ally, I would never hurt you. You can trust me.”
But as he said the words, he remembered why he had come here that morning. Why he had abandoned her the night before. And why she was left at Jason’s mercy. He knew he needed to tell her the truth, but looking at her in this fragile broke state, he knew she wasn’t in any state to tell hear what he had to say.
“Dan is here,” Cole told Ally, watching her face, waiting for her reaction. Her eyes meet his and he gave her an encouraging smile. God, I love her so much, he thought. How can I make is all okay for her?
“Okay, I’ll be right there,” was all she managed to say. She picked up the clothes from the bed and she looked at Cole expectantly. And he realised for the first time she wanted him to leave so she could change and that hurt him. But he smiled and left her alone to change.
No Second Chances Page 22