Chapter 14 - The Truth pt. 2

Chapter 14 - The Truth pt. 2

TW - Graphic description of rape, physical, psychological and sexual abuse, domestic violence.

Jade pov

"Is-is she dead?" I  ask terrified.

"Perrie is alive"

Thank God

"However, her condition is critical. She had two cardiac arrests during the ambulance ride and another one in the OR. You have to understand that her body is weak, we don't know if she will wake up and what her condition will be, if she manages to survive"

Each word is a boulder in my heart. I feel it breaking again.

"W-what does that mean?" Deb asks.

"Unfortunately, we won't know if her brain has been damaged until she wakes up. She could have amnesia, speech impairment, she could be at risk of blindness or deafness. She may even no longer be able to move or communicate. We just have to wait and pray for Perrie to wake up, but the chances of her surviving the next 24 hours are very low"

"What?!" I scream in despair "What are the odds? What are the probabilities that she will survive?"

Dr. Monroe looks at me sadly. "Less than 10%, I'm very sorry"

The world collapses for the umpteenth time and everything around me becomes blurry and irrelevant. All I see is Perrie's body bruised and surrounded by blood.

Leigh squeezes my hand and brings me out of my trance, no one has made a sound yet but I can see the tears on their faces.

"Can you tell us what happened to her?" Debbie asks in a trembling voice.

Dr Monroe looks into the eyes of each one of us and then nods quietly.

"Perrie had a large amount of bruising, traceable to a situation of protracted physical abuse. A broken rib perforated her lung and she suffered internal bleeding. In addition, there were many cuts on her back, some of which were infected"

"Is that why there was all that blood?" I whisper, Dr. Monroe looks at me sorrowfully and shakes his head.

"Perrie was brutally sexually assaulted last night, we detected a series of injuries inside her vagina that caused her to bleed significantly, we were able to close the wounds but the blood loss made her condition worse" The doctor lets his words sink in and then continues.

"Unfortunately, this was not the first time, Perrie had been physically and sexually abused for months, we found evidence of ligatures on her wrists and ankles, as well as signs of asphyxiation and small burns in several places on her body, probably made with cigarettes. Finally, we found evidence of old fractures that had never been treated"

"How long?" I ask without emotion.

"The oldest ones are over a year old, about 14 or 15 months, specifically one in her right wrist and a microfracture in a rib"

I look at Leigh and Jesy and know they are thinking the same thing...

Perrie enters the studio, we are recording Salute and only her part is missing. These days she seems distracted, like she's always in another world. Her wrist is roughly bandaged and yesterday she told Leigh that last week she slipped in the shower and took a knock.

Perrie starts to sing her part in Salute but is out of time and out of breath, she keeps holding her side and looks sore every time she touches it. She tries two more times before Paul tells her to take a break.

She leaves the recording room with tears in her eyes and I follow her into the hallway, grab her healthy wrist and drag her to the nearest empty office. I hear her gasp but I don't care, I'm still too angry at her.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" I yell straight into her face.

"S-sorry, Jadey, I didn't get much sleep last night"

"Could you at least not rub your sex life with Alex in my face? I don't give a shit! And don't call me Jadey!" I reply full of rage.

"I-I'm sorry, let me explain, please, Jade" Perrie lowers her gaze trying to hold back tears.

"I don't give a crap about your explanations! In fact, you know what? I don't give a crap about you! Get your shit together and finish that fucking song!" I shout and walk out of the office leaving Perrie behind.

"There's one more thing" Dr. Monroe interrupts my memories. I look at him with fear in my eyes and motion for him to continue.

"Perrie suffered an abortion, probably a miscarriage. If I had to guess I'd say it was because of the stress and injuries she sustained."

"W-when?" I stammer.

"Unfortunately we can't be sure, definitely more than four months ago" the last piece of my heart shatters into a million pieces as I think that Perrie was pregnant with Alex's violence and it hurts like hell.

Tears line my face. I was so fucking stupid. All those times she tried to talk to me and explain, and I treated her like shit. Alex was already hurting her and if I had listened to her then, we wouldn't be here in this situation now. Perrie could die and it's all my fault.

I try to push the thoughts to the back of my mind and ask the question I dread the answer to.

"Could she be pregnant?" I feel everyone's eyes on me and I look at the doctor waiting for an answer.

"Perrie has a severe form of malnutrition, which has led her to have a condition called Amenorrhea. It means that she does not menstruate and cannot get pregnant. However, it is important that this condition is treated before it causes infertility"

I nod but say no more. Everything is too much to take in and I need to see her as soon as possible.

"We were able to detect the aggressor's DNA and the police are on their way. We will give them a full report of the injuries sustained by Miss Edwards, but if you have any information it will be helpful to talk to the officers" Dr Monroe speaks slowly and we all nod to let him know we are listening.

"It was her boyfriend" I say slowly and then I think Alex was never her boyfriend, he forced her into a relationship with him.

"Can we see her?" Debbie asks Monroe

"You will have to wait a few more hours, in the meantime you can talk to the police and I will call you as soon as you can visit her" with that, the doctor gets up, shakes our hands and leaves.

"It's all my fault. It's all my fault! I should have seen it! I should have understood!" I cry and scream and feel Debbie's arms wrap around me, holding me tight.

We are silent for long minutes until the door opens and we see a man and a woman enter.

They sit where Monroe was sitting before and look at us sadly.

"Good morning, I'm Agent Jareau and this is my partner, Agent Morgan" a blonde woman in her mid-thirties says softly, next to her a man of the same age tall and muscular, with warm, soft eyes.

"We spoke with Miss Edwards' doctor and read the report on her condition. Dr Monroe stated that you know the attacker" Agent Jareau speaks slowly.

"It was Perrie's boyfriend, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain" I say angrily.

"Do you have evidence? Has Miss Edwards confirmed it?" agent Morgan asks calmly.

"Perrie thinks what Alex is doing to her is right, she will deny it, but we have proof" Jesy says pulling out Alex's phone. After being aware of the situation we decided to keep it just in case, besides we couldn't give it back to Perrie or Alex would wonder how she got it.

We spent the next few hours telling the agents everything, from the break-up between me and Perrie to her strange behaviour before she left Little Mix, until we saw her again after a year of silence and found Alex's phone, showing them photos, texts and videos.

My mum went from one to the other to offer comfort as we tried to piece together the facts, while Debbie listened intently. Zayn told his side of the story, only saying that Perrie showed up at his house that night after a fight with me and the next morning he had to leave for an emergency, he had left Perrie with Alex because he trusted him. As he speaks I see him clenching his jaw and rubbing his thighs. His fists are tightened so that his knuckles are white, anger, guilt and regret invade him. Alex was Zayn's friend and Zayn trusted him.

The officers ask us if we know the other people in the photos but we shake our heads, ask a couple more questions and then thank us.

"Let's issue an arrest warrant against Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and put two officers on patrol in front of Miss Edwards' room until we find him" Morgan tells Jareau who nods in response.

"I assure you we will do everything in our power to identify and arrest all the other people involved as well" the blonde says almost angrily. They get up, say goodbye and go away, leaving us once more in the silent room.

"I'll call Simon, I'll ask that he keep the rumours down about the investigation and Perrie's situation" Zayn says before getting up and leaving the room.

We still stand there in the same position without saying anything for half an hour, the door opens and Zayn enters accompanied by Simon.

"Zayn mentioned to me what happened. I only know half of half of the story but I assure you I'm going to deploy all the label's lawyers against Alex and take him down. It will all be at my expense. We have to keep the story out of the spotlight until we have clarified how to deal with it" Simon speaks almost furiously.

I know he doesn't want the story to come out because of marketing reasons, but I find myself agreeing with him, I know Perrie wouldn't want people entering her private life like that. If and when she feels like talking about it, she will.

We talk to Simon for a few minutes to figure out the best course of action, eventually he leaves the studio to call all the label lawyers.

A little later I get up too, "I need some air and a coffee" I say before leaving.

I go to the first floor of the hospital and find a coffee machine, I approach and see Simon sitting with his hands covering his face. I cough to let him know I am here, he takes his hands off his face and looks at me. I see eyes circled in red and I know he was crying.

"Jade, I know you girls think I'm an asshole and most of the time I am, but this. What Alex did to Perrie is...is. No man should touch her like that, no man should touch any woman like that. But I promise you, Jade, I promise you we will make him pay for what he did to our sunshine. We'll make that jerk rot in jail until the end of his days. I promise you, Jade. I promise" Simon hugs me tightly and I burst into a sea of tears. We stay like this for minutes until he offers me coffee and I leave the building to sit on a bench and put my thoughts about all the things that have happened in the last 30 hours in order.

I have been on the bench for the last hour and a half and the tears have finally stopped. I hear the phone ring and accept the call without looking at the ID.

"Jade, come here, they said we can see her" Jesy tells me calmly.

She doesn't have time to finish talking that I'm already running around the hospital, people will think I'm crazy but I don't care, I arrive in front of Perrie's room and Dr. Monroe waves to me.

I don't see Debbie and Jesy tells me she's already inside.

"Miss Thirlwall, as I told your friends, you will have to go in one at a time, it's important that you don't touch any equipment. You may speak to her but in a low voice and quietly" I nod and wait for Debbie to come out, after half an hour she arrives, her eyes circled in red. She gives me a small smile and I enter Perrie's room.

There she is

Her body is surrounded by cables and monitors, I can barely see her face under the bruises, her right eye is very swollen and a slash mars her beautiful lips. Her left cheekbone is similarly bruised, and a large cut runs from her hairline to her eyebrow.

Now, thanks to the bright hospital lights, I can see her body even better. It's even worse than I remember.

Her neck is completely purple and I can see the handprints on her throat, long and short scratches extend over her clavicles along with other bruises. Bite marks near her shoulder, barely covered by her gown, complete the horrible scene.

I cannot see any further because of the gown, and I thank heaven because I know the rest of her body is in the same condition, or even worse.

The bare arms allow me to see cuts, bruises and grazes. Finally, I dwell on the marks on her wrists. I realise that Perrie has been held against her will countless times, so much so that there are grooves caused by the handcuffs.

What have they done to you, love?

I take her hand and squeeze it tightly, taking care not to bump the cables coming out of her body.

The more I look at her, the more I remember the pictures on Alex's phone, Perrie surrounded by all those men who were mercilessly taking advantage of her, I can imagine the sound of her broken voice as she begged them to stop and called for help. I can see their faces and smiles as they enjoyed watching her suffer.

After Jesy told me about the photos with other men, I couldn't help myself. I don't know why I wanted to look at them, I shouldn't have. Maybe a part of me hoped it was all fake and until I saw it, it wouldn't be real. I insisted on seeing them even though Jesy told me it would only hurt me more.

She was right

I saw the way they held Perrie as they took turns raping her, sometimes there were two or three of them at the same time, I saw her desperate face, tears streaming down her face and blood between her legs, their hands held her mouth shut so she wouldn't scream as they touched her like beasts. In other photos she seemed to be asleep, probably unconscious. In still others her eyes were full of fear and terror and in some they were completely glassy and empty.

I will never be able to forget her expressions and I will never be able to forget Alex's smile as he stood there and watched without doing anything. In fact, he was probably inviting them to do more. He was probably participating too.

When I was in the park I got a message from Jesy informing me that the results of Pez's blood test and tox screen had arrived, by some miracle she had not contracted any sexually transmitted diseases, however there were residues of ketamine and ecstasy in her system. Rape drugs. 

In the madness of events I hoped that they had drugged her every time and that she might never remember what they did to her. My hopes were quickly crushed when Jesy said the last time she was drugged was over six months ago. The last photos on Alex's phone were only two days old, the night before they came to London, and Perrie was fully aware of what was happening to her. Like every single time in the last six months. We could tell from the dates on the phone that these 'parties' happened every week, at least once or twice.

I hold her hand and squeeze it tighter trying to stop yet another tear from flowing, I don't think I have ever cried as much in my life as I have in the last 12 hours. I don't even know if there are any tears left to shed.

I want to talk to her, I want to tell her how sorry I am, how stupid I was and how much I love her, but I can't get a word in edgewise.

I stay still and look at her hoping that in a little while I will wake up and be in her arms as she comforts me because this is just a nightmare.

But I won't wake up and be in her arms, and she won't comfort me because this isn't a nightmare, it's the horrible fucking reality, and it hurts like hell.

"Perrie, love, what are you doing?" I sneak up behind her and tickle her. Her laughter fills the walls of our house and a huge smile lights up her face.

"Just writing something, Jadey" her voice is so soft I feel like crying. She looks at me with those bright blue eyes that I could get lost in for hours.

"Let me see, let me see!" I clap excitedly waiting for her to show me what she has written.

"No, love, but I think I'll let you hear it" Perrie smiles and sits me down on the bed, reaching over and taking my hand.

"Why can't you hold me in the street?

Why can't I kiss you on the dance floor?

I wish that it could be like that

Why can't we be like that?

'Cause I'm yours

Why can't I say that I'm in love?

I wanna shout it from the rooftops

I wish that it could be like that

Why can't we be like that?

'Cause I'm yours"

"God, Pez, this is beautiful" I am moved by what she wrote and the beauty of her voice. I think these are some of the most beautiful verses she has ever written.

"Do you really like it? I miss the rest but I'm working on it, it's easy when my inspiration lives with me" she tells me shyly but with a huge smile on her lips and a blush on her cheeks.

I know that Perrie often doubts herself, her looks and her abilities, the truth is that she is an extraordinary person, kind and funny. She is wonderful and her voice is one of the most beautiful in this century.

I know she never shows the shy part of herself and I'm flattered that she trusts me enough to reveal it to me, because like all the other parts of her, this one is wonderful too.

"It's really amazing, love. I'm sure when it's finished it will be a masterpiece. I can't wait to record it and share it with the world. I love you Perrie Edwards."

Perrie approaches me and our lips meet, as always butterflies feast in my stomach as we move our lips in a love-filled kiss.

We pull away as the lack of air becomes an issue and Perrie looks deeply into my eyes.

"I love you Jade Thirlwall, forever" 

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A/N - Drama, drama, drama... honestly this chapter made me really sad but there are still some things for Jade to find out.

If you guys have anything you want to ask about the story, the author or if you have any doubts, this is the right space! Love youuu

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Thank you for reading and take care 🌈🍪

- C