Broken by Vic Johnson (accelerated reader books txt) 📕

‘Ok’ I said getting up. ‘Tell Jack I won’t be long’

Three days had passed and Beth still hadn’t woke up. Jessica still wouldn’t let me see her.

Jack had been released and had gone to the police station and been arrested on assault charges. The police were keeping him in until Beth could give her story. He was in some kind of correctional facility not an actual jail.

He was in bits. He was refusing to see anyone, even his parents. I can’t believe Jessica and Caleb and even Maddie have done this to him.

I walk into the hospital like I have every day and get myself a coffee. Then I take the elevator up to the 5th floor and sit on the chairs outside Beth’s room. About 20 minutes later Max and the witch come out of her room. I don’t say anything to them because the witch just shuts me down every time I try.

‘Brooke’ Max says. I look up. ‘Go in’

‘Really?’

‘Yeah’ I jump up and hug him.

‘Wait’ Jessica says ‘no I said no visitors’

‘Jess she needs to hear her friend’s voices. You know she would want Brooke there’

‘You’re not her dad. You have no right’

‘Wow Jess that’s nice. Brooke go in now. You’re really going to use the fact I’m not her real dad against me’

‘You have only known her a few months’

‘Which is nearly the same as you’

‘How dare you?’

I go in the room then but that was not pretty.

Beth is lying in the bed. She has tubes and wires coming out of everywhere. She looks really helpless. I sit in the chair next to the bed and hold her hand.

‘We really need you to wake up Beth. We all miss you so much. Jackson is a mess. He is in trouble and he needs your help real bad. Jessica is been horrible to everyone even Max.’ I start to cry which I have managed to keep in till now ‘please wake up, please Beth. We need you especially Jackson’ when I say Jackson her hand twitched. I keep talking ‘Jackson loves you so much and he thinks this is his fault’ her hand twitches again ‘he is a mess. He is in jail Beth you have to wake up’ she coughs and I look at her face. She opens her eyes and the relief that floods through my body. I knew she only needed to hear a familiar voice.

She coughs again and I get her some water. I help her drink it and then press the call button. She hasn’t said anything yet but she looks in pain.

The nurse comes in and I point at Beth. She goes over and starts asking questions and looking her over. I put my head out the door and Max is sat there. He looks glum.

‘Max?’ I say. He looks at me. ‘She is awake’

He jumps up and runs into the room. He goes straight over to her and holds her hand.

‘Hi’ Beth says.

‘Hi’ Max replies holding back the tears. ‘Is she ok?’ he asks the nurse.

‘I’ll get the doctor to check her over but she seems fine. She has a long road to recovery’

‘Thank you so much’ Max says. The nurse nods and leaves. Max sits in the chair I was sitting I was using. I go stand next to him.

‘Beth I need you to listen ok?’ Max says. Beth nods. ‘Because you’re a minor, Jess can stop you talking to the police until you’re out of hospital. You have no choice. But if you sign this’ he pulls a document from his back pocket ‘this will mean I have adopted you and I am your legal guardian so I can get the police for you’

‘So you would be my dad?’ she says it low and croaky but you can hear her.

‘Yes. You don’t have to call me that and it’s only really for this purpose. Helping Jackson’

‘I don’t mind you been my dad. Thank you for everything you have done for me’

‘I love you’

‘I love you’ Beth replies. Tears spring to her eyes ‘do you have a pen’

An hour later Jessica came into the room. She was mad as hell that nobody had told her that Beth was awake. She tried to make me leave but Beth said I could stay.

Jessica tried everything to get Beth to talk to her but Beth was having none of it.

Ten minutes later and Detective Prior came in.

‘Miss Cooper good to see you’re awake. How are you?’

‘Apart from all the broken bones I’m good. When will Jackson be released?’

‘I don’t think Beth is quite up for an interview today Detective’ Jessica said.

‘I’m fine’ Beth said ‘I want to get this sorted so I can move on’

‘Another day honey’ Jessica said. Then she turned to the detective and said ‘Sorry you wasted your time but as her Mother I am saying she is not well enough to talk to you yet’

‘Actually’ Beth said ‘Max said its ok’

‘Well Max had no right to do that’

‘Actually I do’ Max said. Jessica turned to look at the both of them,

‘What have you two done?’

‘Max adopted me. He is now officially my legal guardian so he can say that I am ok to talk to the police’

I watched as Jessica’s face turned beet red. She was beyond pissed. ‘How dare you do that behind my back?’

‘Well you kept shutting me out saying I had no rights. So I got them’

‘Ahem’ The Detective cleared his throat ‘can we get on with this and you can have your family squabble later. And for the record Mrs Cooper’

‘Mrs Hoyt’ Jessica corrected

‘Mrs Hoyt. The only person who can stop me talking to a witness or victim - which in this case your daughter is both - is her doctor’

‘What? Is that true?’ Jessica said.

‘Yes’ he said then he looked at Beth. ‘Are you ready to tell me what happened?’

Beth nodded.

‘Ok so you were grounded right? You were not allowed to go to the party?’ Prior said.

‘No Max said I could go’ Beth said

‘You did?’ Jessica asked.

‘Yeah’ Max said. ‘Jack came around to talk to me. To apologise for what happened and I felt sorry for him so I let her go’

‘Why was he apologising?’ Prior asked.

‘We found out that he and Beth had been intimate’

‘Why did you feel sorry for him?’ Prior asked.

‘Because he loves Beth and he thought she didn’t feel the same. I knew that she did so I told her to go tell him’

‘Put that boy out of his misery was what you said’ Beth said smiling. She looked at the detective. ‘I got to the party and I couldn’t see Jackson so I went looking for him. I was in the kitchen and Caleb came over. He asked if we could talk. I didn’t really want to go into that room with him but I did. I should have trusted my gut.’

‘Why did you not want to go with him?’ Prior asked.

‘Because I had embarrassed him a few months before and he kept looking at me like he wanted revenge’

‘How did you embarrass him?’

‘He was picking on a kid called Frank and he hit him pretty hard so I punched him on the nose to see how he liked it’

‘I see’ Prior said writing something down. ‘What happened when you got in the bedroom?’

‘We sat down on the bed. I had a can of pop he a beer. He started to apologize for what he did to Frank. I said it was Frank he should be saying this to. He said he missed having Jackson as a friend and he was hoping that by making amends with me would help him with Jackson. Then someone knocked on the door. That’s when he slipped whatever it was into my drink when I turned to the door.’

‘Who came in?’

‘Nobody yet’

‘How do you know that was when he put something in your drink?’

‘I’ll get to that’

I smiled. She was going to be thorough about this.

‘After that he asked me for a truce. He asked if we could be friendly in the future. He seemed really genuine so I said yes. He held his beer up and said cheers. I did the same and drank from my can. It was instant. I knew something was wrong. I tried to walk to the door but my legs gave way and I fell to the floor’ nobody was looking at her now everyone was looking at the floor. ‘Then she came in’

Now everyone looked at her.

‘Who came in?’ Prior asked.

‘Maddie’

‘Maddie?’ I asked. Beth nodded

‘You mean Miss Madison Scott?’

‘Yeah. She knocked on the door to distract me while he put whatever in my drink. She told me.’

‘Did she say anything else?’

Tears sprang from Beth’s eyes. I had never seen her look so young and vulnerable. I think because she is so tough you don’t expect her to cry.

‘She told him to make sure it hurt’ max sat on the bed and held her hand. Even the detective didn’t know what to say. ‘After she left he pulled me up by my hair. He punched me a few times. He threw me into the wardrobes. While I was collapsed in agony on the floor he kicked me a few times. I have never been so scared in my whole life. I thought he was going to kill me and I couldn’t even scream. He picked me up and threw me on the bed. He started touching me’ Max looked really mad. ‘He started to take off my shorts and then I woke up here’

‘You don’t remember anything else between then?’

‘No nothing’

‘Ok thank you for your time Miss Cooper’

‘What happens now?’ Max asked

‘I need to talk to Mr Richardson and Miss Scott and then I will let you know’

‘What about Jack?’ I said.

‘I cannot discuss Mr Connelly’s case with you I’m afraid. Thank you for your time Miss Cooper’ and then he was gone.

‘So can we tear up the stupid adoption papers now?’ Jessica asked

‘I have already had them sent via courier to be finalised’ Max said. Then he looked at Beth ‘I can phone and cancel them if you like’

‘That would be great’ Jessica said.

‘I wasn’t asking you’ Max snapped back.

‘Leave them’ Beth said ‘Might be nice to have a dad again’ she smiled. I felt like I was intruding so I said goodbye and that I would come back later and I left.

I was walking down the corridor when I saw Charlie. He had been my rock these last few days. I don’t know what I would have done without him. I got the feeling he wanted more though and I still wasn’t ready.

‘Hey how is she?’ he asked.

‘Awake’ I said smiling.

‘That’s awesome’ he smiled too. ‘You hungry?

‘Starving. I don’t think I have eaten in days’

‘Come on then. I’ll buy you lunch’ I smiled and off we went.

I had been awake now for two days. Nobody would tell me what was happening with Jackson or Caleb. Jessica wasn’t speaking to me or Max because of the adoption thing. Whenever she came in the room now I just pretended to be asleep because it was easier. Today they were fighting.

‘If you hadn’t let her go