Page 70 of Heartbreaker

Chapter 27

Ashley

Finally, the doctors have stopped messing with my head. I told them it was a little cut and with some painkillers I will be fine, but no they want to check everything over. I mean when they say look at the light then ask how many fingers they are holding, all I see is the flashlight still in my vision.

I look over at the door and see Taylor walking in, which is surprising when I asked to see Jackson, and the look on her face tells me what I don’t want to hear. He left.

“Ash…”

“Leave it, it’s fine,” I tell her, there is nothing that she can say to me to make me feel any better. I thought Jackson coming to the shop meant we would talk things through, but no.

“The doctor says I can go home,” I tell her. I just want to go home and sleep, it’s been a shit two days and I thought seeing Jackson would make it better, but he made his choice and chose to walk away from us.

“Let’s go, me and Corey will be staying with you tonight, so don’t even bother fighting about it with me,” she tells me and at the moment I don't have the energy to fight her about anything.

Sitting in the car I look out the window. My head is all over the place at the moment, the man I fell in love with lied to me, and then walked away when something like this happened to me, and the man I thought was my friend was always my stalker.

“You know I freak out when you’re quiet,” Taylor breaks me out of my thoughts, and I look at her watching me.

“Just thinking about Ethan,” I tell her. I mean I thought he was our friend, maybe he was our friend, but I did something for him to get the wrong idea about us. I make a list in my head all the things we did together as a group, and nothing seems out of what I normally do with them. I mean all the sex advice and lessons, Taylor did them not me. I just watched and never got involved with that.

“He turned out to be a crazy one,” Taylor says, and I just nod my head, crazy is one way to put it. “The doctor did say that you might not be able to sleep well tonight, so I thought I would jump in with you and Corey can take the couch.”

“Yeah that’s fine.” I don’t really fancy being on my own in my room anyway, just thinking about what Ethan could have done makes my blood run cold.

Corey parks outside the shop, and I make my way to my flat. The first thing I want to do is have a shower, I need to wash this day off me. “Having a shower,” I tell Taylor as I shut the door behind me. Taking my phone, I look to see if Jackson has sent me a message. Nothing, and my thumb hovers over his name. Do I call him or not? I mean I want to know why he thought walking away from this after what happened to me is okay.

I stare at his name for ten minutes before I throw my phone on the floor and turn the shower on. I shouldn’t have to feel like this, I’m the one that was lied too, I’m the one that was attacked not him, so he should be the one looking at my name on his phone, and feeling like shit, not me.

*~*~*

I told Taylor that I wanted to pop out this morning. I wanted a change, sometimes a change is good, and at the moment I feel like shit and maybe a new hair colour is what I need to make me feel even a little good about myself.

Walking into the shop Taylor whistles at me. “You know Ash, I don’t think there are many people out there that can pull of the look, but the unicorn hair colour looks amazing on you.”

“Thank you, I wanted a new look.” I look over at the door and my mood changes as I see two police officers walking my way.

“Ashley?” I give them a nod. “We were hoping that we could take your statement and go over the details again?” I swallow the fear I am feeling and nod again. “Ethan seems to believe that you two are in a relationship, have been for a while now. It seems he was posing as a man named Alex and had sought employment with your partner at a company called The Heartbreaker,” the female detective says slowly.

I look over at Taylor. I still wonder why he thinks that about us, I never once thought that he liked me romantically. I can’t believe he got a job with Jackson to get close to me. “Am I in any danger?” I ask, hating the fear in my voice and grateful for Taylor next to me.

“If we could talk somewhere more private?”

“Yes, if you want to come to the back of the shop.” I lead them over and Taylor follows. “Where is he now?”

“He has been charged with kidnap and actual bodily harm as well as stalking he is being held until his hearing, we are recommending he not get bail and be held on remand until his trial. Can you please tell us a little about your relationship with the defendant? Ethan is saying you two have been dating.”

“We haven’t ever dated, he has never even asked me out. I don’t know what to tell you that I didn’t tell the other police officers at the hospital,” I reply bewilderment making it hard for me to concentrate; I can’t believe this is happening. I go over everything that happened after I left Jackson, fighting tears, and wishing like hell that he was here with me. I answer questions about my friendship with Ethan, how we met, if I had noticed anything off about him. Finally, they have asked everything, I sign my official statement. I am completely drained, and my head is hurting. I just want Jackson to hold me and tell me I am safe, that he won’t leave me, but that isn’t going to happen, he made his choice.

“We will leave you to rest but if you need anything please call us.” She hands me the card for victim support and another with their contact details on it.

“Thank you,” I say on automatic pilot as I hear the buzzer letting us know the someone has come into the shop, and Taylor walks out. I take the cards from the officer, and put them into my back pocket, as I look at Taylor opening the door.

“Your brother is back.”

Giving her a nod, I watch my baby brother as he watches the police leave. I walk over to his open arms, and he holds me tight and kisses my head.

“You okay sis?” I nod into his shoulder, for now I feel safe, but what about later when I am alone and they’ve all left?

*~*~*

I spend most of the morning talking to my brother about what the plan is. I just want it to be over with. I don’t want Ethan to go to prison, if there is something wrong with him. I want him to get better. But I don’t want him doing this to anyone else, he is unstable, and he needs help before someone gets killed.

“The shop is all closed up,” Taylor says as she pops her head into the kitchen. “You still going to get the tattoo?”

Walking over to her I grab my bag. “Yeah, thought I would get something new, it’s been awhile,” I say leaving the shop with her and Finn.