“Okay,” she replied, her smile fading as she turned to look at Liam, who was still standing at the end of the bed.
“Hi, Brook,” Liam said, giving her a reassuring smile. “I’m Detective Murphy… Liam, you can call me Liam. How are you feeling?”
“I’ve been better,” she replied, giving him a tight smile before she glanced at Dylan once more.
“I would like to ask you a few questions, if I may?” Liam continued giving her a cautious smile, and Dylan knew he was trying his hardest not to pressure her and make her feel uneasy in anyway. “Would that be okay?”
“I guess,” she replied, still looking less than convinced. She pushed up in the bed slightly, but then winced. Dylan instinctively reached out and helped her, settling her pillows behind her, ensuring that she was comfortable.
“Great. You can tell me to stop whenever you feel like it,” he replied with a smile, as he pulled a notebook from his back pocket. “Just say the word, and I’ll stop.”
“Okay,” she replied, but still her face told Dylan that she was still uncertain.
“I will leave you two alone,” Dylan said, as he made to leave, but Brook quickly grabbed his hand stopping him in his tracks.
“Please,” she said, giving him a pleading look, then a nervous smile. “Stay with me. I don’t want to do this alone.”
Dylan stared at her for a moment, then turned as he looked at Liam, giving him a questioning look.
“That’s fine with me,” Liam nodded, but it was his turn to give Dylan a questioning look. Dylan moved back to towards the bed, but to his surprise, Brook didn’t let go of his hand. “Let’s get this started then, shall we?”
“Okay,” Brook nodded looking anything but ready.
Chapter 6
Brook
She glanced up at Dylan, and he smiled at her, then she turned to look at the detective once more. There was something familiar about him. She didn’t know why, but that made her feel a little uneasy. Was he one of Warren’s friends, she wasn’t sure. But she trusted Dylan, and he said that she could trust the detective, so she was going to at least try.
“So,” Liam said, moving around the bed to the far side from where Dylan was standing. “Can you tell me, what is the last thing that you remember; before waking up here, I mean?”
“I don’t know,” she sighed as she glanced up at Dylan once more. “Not much. Everything seems so muddled. It’s like I can’t think straight. I remember getting the call. Some woman said she was a nurse from the care home…”
She closed her eyes as she tried her hardest to recall the conversation.
“She said that her name was… Elizabeth, that’s it,” Brook said as she opened her eyes, looking up at Liam. “She said that my dad had taken a bad turn and that I needed to get there as soon as possible.”
“Had you ever talked to her before?” Liam asked as he wrote something down in his little notebook before his gaze returned to her.
“No, I don’t think I have,” Brook replied, shaking her head. “But I haven’t been able to come to visit in a while, so I thought she might have just been someone new. She wasn’t from the home, was she?”
“I don’t believe so,” Liam replied, giving her a smile. “But we can pull your phone records. Find out where the call came from. It’s a place to start, who knows, it might even be the biggest mistake they made.”
Brook smiled at Liam; there really was something so familiar about him. She was sure she’d met him before. But for some reason, she could feel her wall beginning to lower a little with him too. Dylan had been right about him. He seemed like a good guy too, well for now anyway.
“So, what happened after the call?” Liam said, trying to bring her focus back to what they were doing right now. “What did you do next?”
“I… I don’t know,” she replied, closing her eyes once more, trying her hardest to remember what happened next, but she couldn’t make any sense of the images that were flashing through her mind. She wanted to scream and cry with pure frustration. Why couldn’t she remember? “I can’t… I can’t remember. I’m sorry, it’s just so muddled.”
“That’s okay,” Liam assured her, clearly sensing her anxiety. “You’re doing really well.”
Brook gave him a smile before she glanced up at Dylan. The moment her eyes met his, he gave her a broad smile.
“Maybe you need to take a little break,” Dylan suggested.
“I’m okay,” she assured him, giving him a bright smile.
“Why don’t we go back a little further then,” Liam suggested, pulling her attention back to him. “You said you hadn’t visited your dad in a while. Why was that?”
“Because I had left San Francisco last year,” Brook replied, knowing that now he would ask about Warren. If she was honest, Brook wasn’t sure she was ready to talk about him yet.
“Can you tell me why you left San Francisco?” Liam asked, giving her a questioning look.
Brook glanced at Dylan once more, before she turned back to Liam and took a deep breath.
“I left because I knew if I stayed here, my ex-husband would kill me,” Brook replied, knowing that there was no point in lying now. “He always said if he couldn’t have me, then no one could. On the few times, I came to see my father, Warren would turn up, and he would cause so much trouble. I would call the cops. They would come and talk to him, but he would flash his badge, and that would be that. Just like it had been when I was still living with him. He would hit me, I’d call the cops, they would come, but that’s as far as it ever went.”
Brooks face burned with embarrassment. She wasn’t comfortable talking to another cop about this. She knew they had a code and talking about one of them to their own was never easy. Still, she knew she needed to tell him everything. She would see then if he would help her or brush it under the rug as all the others had.
“I don’t understand,” Liam replied, surprised by her comment. “Didn’t they arrest him?”
“They would talk him into leaving for the night,” Brook explained, surprised by his reaction. “A few times they would drive him to the local hotel in the cop car. But then they would come and tell me how pressing charges would only make things worse, that a judge probably wouldn’t even give me a restraining order, and he had never actually touched me.”
“Wait, I thought he had,” Liam said, surprised by what she had said. “Dylan said… I thought that he had before.”
“He did,” she replied as suddenly hot tears spilled down her face, but she quickly brushed them away. She glanced up at Dylan once more, and he nodded at her, letting her know it was okay to continue. “But there was no record, because every time I called the cops, I was talked out of pressing charges. They didn’t even keep a record of the calls I made. They said it would be my word against his.”
“Please tell me you have these officers’ names,” Liam said, and Brook was surprised by how angry he seemed, and for the first time, she believed that maybe he would be the one that would help her.
“I… I think I have some of them,” Brook replied, still stunned that he seemed to believe her. “But who is going to believe me? They’re cops, and I’m just me. And Warren was smart. He always knew where to hit me, so the marks didn’t show. I mean, at least in the beginning. Then, when he had gotten away with it so many times, he didn’t care about the marks, he would just lash out.”
“I believe you,” Liam assured her, reaching out, and softly touching her arm. It was at that moment she realised why she recognised Liam. Something about him reminded her of Dylan; It was the same gentle, emerald green eyes. There was a kindness in him that made her feel like she could trust him too. They had the same smile too, though Dylan seemed a little shyer than Liam. That’s when it hit her. Murphy! Of course! Liam was Dylan’s brother. “I can’t change what has happened to you, but I can make sure it never happens again, and I will make everyone involved with this pay for what has happened.”
“Thank you,” Brook whisper
ed as a fresh wave of tears broke free and spilled down her face. “I never believed that anyone would ever help me.”
“Well, you can believe it now,” Liam said, giving her hand a gentle squeeze before he turned to Dylan and spoke. “I think you need to call Landen too. I think he is exactly who she needs in her corner too. If he’s too busy, then maybe Mom…”
“Landen?” Brook asked, cutting him off mid-sentence, having no clue who this Landen was.
“Our brother,” Liam replied, then added with a smile. “Also known as The Bulldozer, and with very good reason. He is an attorney. Trust me, with him in your corner; you will have nothing to worry about.”
“Do I need an attorney?” Brook asked, giving him a worried look.
“I think it would be a good idea to talk to him,” Liam replied with a nod. “I can find the scumbag that did this, but I’m gonna need some help making those who let you down in the past pay too.”
“But I can’t afford an expensive attorney,” Brooks explained, wish for the millionth time that she could wake up to find this was all just a bad dream.
“I’m sure we can work something out,” Liam assured her with a smile. “In the meantime, I need you to try and get some rest. I will come back in the morning to see how you’re doing. We can talk some more. Maybe you might remember a little more by then.”
“Maybe,” she replied, giving him a worried smile.
“Brook,” Liam said as he reached out and softly touched her hand. “Everything is going to be okay. You’re in good hands here with Dylan, and I promise you I will do whatever it takes to catch whoever did this to you. And if that someone turns out to be a cop, well then he will pay just the same as anyone else.”
“Thank you, Liam,” Brook whispered as once more hot tears stung her eyes. But this time they were mostly tears of relief. For the first time since Warren hit her, she felt like there was still someone in the world who cared about her. Someone who believed her. She gave him a smile before she turned to Dylan as her smile widened. “Thank you both; so much.”
“You have nothing to thank us for,” Dylan replied, squeezing her hand. “Just concentrate on getting better; that’s all we want you to do.”
Brook stared at him for a moment. He really was such a sweet guy. She had no idea why she liked him so much, but she really did. There was an honesty in him that she had never found in anyone before.
Granted, she wasn’t exactly the greatest judge of character in the world. She once believed Warren was a good guy. But still, there was something special about Doctor Dylan Murphy.
Brook had grown up in a small town just south of Seattle. Her mother died during childbirth, so it has always been just her and her father.
Her dad’s real name was David Michael McKay. He was a high school science teacher, and the sweetest man Brook had ever known in her twenty-nine years. He had married his high school sweetheart and promised to spend the rest of his life with her. When his wife, Alice, died from a complication during childbirth, David swore he would never love someone like the way he loved his Alice. Instead, he poured all his love into Brook, and they had a happy life.
Brook had followed her father into teaching, which was what had brought her to San Francisco. She had landed a job teaching at a private High school. She taught History and English.
That was when she met Warren Pearce.
On a night out with some of the other teachers from the school, she bumped into Warren, literally. He was probably the most handsome man she had ever met. He asked if he could buy her another drink, having sent the one she was holding crashing to the floor when he bumped into her. Brook had never met anyone so confident or charming before. So she smiled and agreed to let him buy her another drink.
Warren was a few years older than Brook, but he had been so sweet and caring. That night, when he dropped her home, he simply kissed her on the cheek, nothing more. But then he asked Brook if he could take her for dinner the following night, and she said yes without hesitating.
They got married less than a year later. Everyone said it was so fast, but Brook knew she loved him, so she didn’t care what anyone thought.
The first time he hit her was three weeks after they came home from their honeymoon. Warren had a really bad day at work and had drunk a little too much. It was just one slap, and the moment it happened, Warren fell apart. He begged for her forgiveness, promising it would never happen again until it did; three months later.
This time Brook left. She had returned home to her father, though she didn’t tell him what had happened; just that it hadn’t worked out. Warren, of course, came after her, promising that he would get help, that he would never hurt her again.
In her heart, Brook knew it would happen again, but she loved Warren, and she wanted to believe that he could change.
He didn’t.
Within twelve months, Warren had all but shut her off from the rest of the world. She had no one to talk to, no one to turn to. The only person left was her father. So, she left Warren once more, returning home.
It was at this time David was diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer’s. Brook was devastated, and to her horror, David’s Alzheimer’s seemed to be very aggressive. Every day she was losing her father, just a little more.
Then Warren showed up at her father’s house. He promised that he was sober now and that he had even gone to talk to a counsellor about his anger issues. Brook wanted to tell him to go to hell, but she had no one else in the world. Some days her father didn’t even remember who she was, and she needed someone to hold her. Someone to tell her that everything would be okay. Warren became her shoulder.
Brook agreed to move back to San Francisco, and Warren said that he would have her father moved to a nursing home there too. Brook thought that maybe this time, it would work out.
She was so wrong. Once she had returned home, and Warren had moved her father to the nursing home in San Francisco, he became super controlling again.
Brook was now trapped. She had nowhere to run to, and Warren held the purse strings that paid for her father’s nursing home. She had become his prisoner.
The night she went to the emergency room and met Dylan she knew then she needed to make a plan to escape. But it needed to be a good one. Warren had told her that if she ever left him again, he would kill her. Brook knew that he meant it. She tried calling the police, but Warren was almost like a god to some of the officers, and every time she called them, they would talk her into dropping the charges. Every single time he hit her, he got away with it.
But meeting Dylan made her see that not everyone bought Warren’s crap. The doctor saw right through him, and for the first time Brook believed she might not be as trapped as she felt.
As faith would have it. About six months after the visit to the emergency room, Brook received a call from a solicitor in New York. Her mother’s sister had passed away. Brook had lost contact with her over the years, but she hadn’t forgotten Brook. Brook was her only living relative. She wasn’t a rich woman, but she was comfortable, and she had left her entire estate to Brook.
This was the break Brook needed. She opened a bank account in her maiden name, and when her aunt’s estate was settled, her inheritance was paid into that account. Warren knew nothing about it.
Brook decided to move back to the house she had grown up in. Something had stopped her from selling it when she returned to San Francisco. She knew Warren could still find her there, but it was a different town, different cops. This time he couldn’t use his name to get away with whatever he wanted to.
After months of planning, and several more beatings, the day had finally come to leave. She had arranged for her father to be moved to a nursing home back in the town she grew up in, and that was the day they were going home.
When she arrived at the nursing home, Brook was scared but excited. Warren was at work, so she would have a few hours head start on her journey before he even knew she was gone. Everything was going to work out.
He refused to let Brook take her father with her. He had a legal document that confirmed he was now David’s legal guardian, not her, something she had unknowingly signed when she was signing all the forms for her father to be moved to the nursing home in San Francisco.
Brook was devastated. She had two choices. She could return home with Warren, where she knew she would never survive. Or she could leave San Francisco, leaving her father behind.
It broke her heart, but she knew at least for now her father would be safe. So she turned and left everything behind her, filing for divorce before she did.
However, instead of heading back to Seattle, she headed to New York, where she was determined to make a life for herself, then eventually bring her father to New York to live with her too.
She had returned to San Francisco a few times to visit her father, but each time Warren would turn up, and things never ended well. Brook knew she needed to do something. She needed to get her father out of that home somehow, to a safe place where she could visit him, and not be scared.
So that’s when Michael Wilson was created. With the help of a friend back in New York, Brook managed to change her father’s name on the copy of his medical records that she had. She gave him a new identity and managed to get him a spot in another nursing home, but unfortunately, it was a nursing home still in San Francisco.
Brook knew her father wasn’t strong enough for a road trip across the country, and with her plan, there was no way she could take him on a plane or train, not for a while.
So instead, she moved him to where she could visit him, without Warren turning up, making her life a living hell.
Dylan (The Murphy Series Book 5) Page 7
