Broken Truth (31 page)

It was the start of a new beginning for Charlie. She was leaving to take on a new adventure in a foreign country without the love of her life. It was something she couldn’t have even thought possible a mere six weeks ago, but now here she was. There was no going back - she knew this.

Charlie walked numbly through the automatic doors and into terminal three departures at Manchester Airport. With her hand attached firmly to the handle of her suitcase, she joined the masses of people heading towards the check-in desks.

“There is an empty one over to your left,” she heard Lucy call from behind.

“I see it,” she replied, flicking a brief smile over her shoulder at her two friends who were trailing behind with her other two suitcases. She was grateful that they had both offered to come with her to the airport because it gave Charlie a little longer with them before she had to say goodbye.

“Hello. Please may I see your passport and ticket information?”

“Hi, thank you.” Charlie opened her handbag and passed the documents to the friendly check-in assistant who started to tap away on the computer in front of her.

“How many bags are you checking in today?”

“Three please,” Charlie replied, picking up her first suitcase and placing it onto the conveyor belt at the side of the desk. She repeated the process a further two times with the remaining cases before the assistant smiled and handed Charlie her passport and boarding card.

“Your flight is scheduled for takeoff at twenty past one to arrive in London Heathrow at two thirty. From there please follow the internal transfers to terminal five where your flight to Milan will be taking off at five past three.”

“Thank you,” Charlie acknowledged with a courteous nod. She secured her handbag firmly to her shoulder and started walking towards the escalator. Before she joined the clusters of people heading towards security and the departure lounge, she turned around rubbing her hands together.

Her bottom lip began to quiver as she took in the sad smiles on both Amelia and Lucy’s faces. Her stomach lurched uncomfortably as she fought to keep her emotions in control. She knew that she had to do it. She had to say goodbye and get on a plane that would take her roughly seven hundred and fifty miles away from everything she had ever known.

“I said I wouldn’t cry,” Amelia muttered as she flicked her finger under both of her eyes. Stepping forward, she wrapped her arms around Charlie’s body and hugged her tightly. “I’m going to miss you so much, but I know this is an amazing opportunity for you. Just make sure you buy me lots of presents and message me at least once a day.”

Feeling her own tears starting to fall, Charlie sniffed and held onto Amelia. “I will, I will,” she promised tearfully. “I will keep in contact with you both.”

Amelia broke away from their embrace so that Lucy could have her turn to say goodbye. Charlie watched as Lucy approached with a sad smile and puffy reddened eyes. “I love you,” she said as she hugged Charlie closely. “You are doing the right thing. Go and enjoy yourself. You deserve this opportunity so much.”

Pulling back, Charlie wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “Are you sure that this is right? It doesn’t feel like I am making the right decision,” she confessed. “I just feel as though I am running away from my problems. Should I run away from everything that happened or should I stay and fight through the fire?”

Lucy gripped Charlie’s upper arms. “Babe, if you stay and fight the fire, the only thing I can see is you getting burnt. Look around, do you see him here? Is he here fighting for you not to get on this plane?”

Charlie swallowed the growing lump in the back of her throat as she looked around the busy terminal. Amongst the masses of people saying their goodbyes, her eyes still tried to seek him out through the crowds.

As she continued to scan the area, a young couple to the left caught Charlie’s eye. She watched enviously as they both tearfully embraced and said their goodbyes to one another. It was a beautiful and heart wrenching sight to see.

A sharp stab of jealously flooded abruptly into her aching heart knowing that she should be experiencing the same feelings. She thought of Callum, knowing that he was supposed to be with her right now. He was supposed to be here to stop her from getting on the plane. He was supposed to be here to hold her and soothe all of the problems. He was supposed to tell her that he was going to fix everything.

Wishing for a miracle, she continued to search for him. She wanted to believe that by not giving up he was going to appear. She wanted it to happen so much that it physically hurt.

The minutes passed silently before the unwelcoming realisation set in. “He isn’t coming,” Charlie croaked. She dropped her hands to clutch at her middle as a surge of nausea tried to battle up and out from her stomach. “We didn’t fight hard enough. All of this didn’t need to happen. We could have worked through this, Lucy. We could have gone to counselling and we could have tried harder. I feel like this is my fault. I allowed this to happen by cutting him out of my life and trying to sleep with some random guy to help me forget him,” she cried, scrunching her eyes closed.

Hearing her confession, Amelia stepped forward. “Charlie, look at me,” she commanded. Lifting her hands to cup her face, Amelia spoke directly into Charlie’s eyes. “You did not ask for any of this to happen. This was not your fault. He had a choice, Charlie. Remember that, he had a choice and he chose to lie. As much as this sucks watching you go through this, I know that you are feeling nowhere near as broken as that scumbag is right now. Yes, you almost slept with Jay, but that isn’t even on the same level as what he did to you. He deserves every piece of tortured pain his lying, scheming heart is feeling right now.”

“She’s right,” Lucy agreed. “He was
married,
Charlie. You shouldn’t feel any form of sadness for that bastard. If anything, you should be angry. He hid things and lied to you for the entire span of your relationship.”

Listening to their words, Charlie swiped the tears away from her face.

What was she doing?

Why was she wasting her tears on him?

Charlie looked down at her hands to find that she was unconsciously curling and loosening them into small fists. The muscles in her arms quivered at the sudden change in her emotions. The wallowing feelings of her earlier self-pity and regret were starting to disappear to be replaced by something else.

“Are you alright?” Amelia asked warily as she took in her gradual change of expression.

Charlie heard the noisy sound of her own breaths as everything around her ceased to exist. All she could focus on was the bitter rage welling within her body. “I feel so stupid,” she said, her nostrils flaring wide. “I don’t know why I saw myself as the villain in all of this. I didn’t do anything to deserve what he has done to me, did I? He clearly never cared for me or else he would never have done what he did. He was protecting himself all along,” she spat.

“Finally,” Lucy cheered. “I am so happy that you understand. He is the one that has lucked out, Charlie. He has lost everything including you. He deserves what he is getting and you don’t need to feel sorry for him.”

Amelia used her thumbs to wipe the tears from her own cheeks. “Now... You turn around and you go and get on that plane. You go, you find yourself and you become happy. It’ll be hard, but remember that we are always here for you.” Amelia clasped hold of both Charlie’s and Lucy’s hands. “We love you and we promise that we will be here for you when you get back. Now go because people are staring at us like we are weird,” she laughed sadly.

Blinking away the remainder of her tears, Charlie gripped onto the shoulder strap of her handbag and gave her two friends a determined smile. “I love you guys,” she whispered as she turned around and made her way onto the escalator.

“Go get um, bitch!”

Charlie looked over her shoulder to find both girls throwing their fists into the air. As she approached the top of the escalator, she lifted her hand to give one final wave before the next level appeared and they disappeared from sight.

Twenty Nine

“God, I missed you so much, Baby,” Callum breathed huskily as he ran his nose along the length of her neck. Charlie shivered with excitement as his mouth gently nipped at the soft skin under her jaw before making his way up to the lobe of her ear. “I have been living in absolute hell for the last six weeks without you. Promise me you won’t leave me again. I’ll do anything to put things right between us,” he begged as he tucked a lock of her chestnut coloured hair behind her ear so that he could alternate his suckling.

A low moan escaped Charlie’s lips as she writhed and wriggled craving the touch she had missed for so long. “Callum...” She panted his name breathlessly as his hand cupped her face.

“Patience, Baby,” he chuckled, hooking his fingers into the front of her blouse. With one ferocious tug, the silky satin material ripped apart between his hands to reveal Charlie’s lace covered breasts that ached painfully for his attention. “I need to take my time. I haven’t seen or felt you in so long,” Callum whispered against her skin as his lips began a scorching path of heat towards the valley between her breasts.

Impatiently, Charlie snuck her hands underneath the simple grey T-Shirt he wore. A small smile fluttered across her mouth at the sound of Callum’s sharp intake of breath. He cursed aloud and closed his eyes as her fingertips lightly grazed over the defined ridges of his abdomen.

“I don’t want you to take your time,” she murmured as her hands stroked over his small but masculine nipples. His body shuddered beneath her fingers and he let out a shaky breath. “I need you to fuck me, Callum. I need to feel you inside of me right now,” she urged, pressing herself flush against him.

Callum opened his eyes and gave Charlie a look that melted her insides into nothing. Although she had seen this look many times before, she was never surprised that it always managed to affect her in exactly the same way.

His gaze was dark, the energy within his eyes penetrating her body like an X-Ray. She let her walls down knowing that he could see straight through to her heart. She wanted him to know that she hadn’t let go. She was still fighting for them both on the inside.

Moving her hands to the waistband of Callum’s jeans, Charlie started to undo the few buttons that separated her from the length she craved desperately. “Please,” she whimpered softly as he pulled at the cup of her bra to expose one breast. He dipped his head low so that he could take her pink and protruding nipple into his mouth. “Fuck,” Charlie hissed as his tongue laved unhurriedly around her hardened tip.

Charlie released the final button on his jeans and pushed them down along with his boxer shorts. She gasped as his pulsating shaft prodded into the side of her leg. “The Mile High Club on a commercial flight wasn’t exactly my greatest idea was it?” Callum released her nipple and gave her a crooked smile that pierced directly to her heart.

Looking around the small airplane bathroom, Charlie shook her head in amusement. “I can’t believe you actually came,” she whispered, tears pricking at the corners of her eyes.

Callum lifted her bottom onto the small sink area and pushed the hem of her skirt up to her hips. Pulling the small scrap of her underwear to the side, he grasped his now bouncing dick and guided it towards the wetness of her opening.

“Do you want it?” His eyes danced wildly as he slowly stroked himself backwards and forwards over the delicate and quivering flesh at her opening.

Charlie’s lips parted as she felt the tip of his cock nudging at the swollen folds of her pussy. “Please,” she begged. “Callum, please...”

“Miss?”

“Callum...”

“Miss?”

Charlie was jolted awake suddenly as the air hostess placed a hand gently on her shoulder. Immediately, she looked down at her body and realised she was still in the same position as she had been for takeoff. Disappointment surged through her in a matter of seconds. She had dreamt everything. There was no Callum and there was no Mile High Club in the bathroom.

“Please can you put on your seatbelt? We have started our descent into Milan,” the air hostess requested.

“S-S-Sure,” Charlie stammered as she pulled the belt across her lap and plugged it into the buckle.

The air hostess gave her a satisfied nod and continued her scan through the rest of the cabin. Charlie opened the window blind beside her and squinted out at the evening Milan sunshine.

She had arrived.