Hollow Weekend

Chapter 3

POV: Jaden

There’s a kind of silence that eats at your soul, not the silence of an empty room or the kind that settles after midnight, this silence is heavier, i carries judgment and reeks of betrayal. It echoes the whispers of people who used to praise you, now waiting like vultures to see if you’ll rot.

I sit on the cold bench, hands locked together, resting between my knees. The concrete walls of the holding cell are stained with time and tears. My eyes burn from lack of sleep. Every breath I take feels like I'm inhaling guilt, even though I know… I know I didn’t do what they said I did.

But try telling the world that, try screaming into a hurricane and see how far your voice goes. I replay the events in my head again, hoping maybe, just maybe I missed something. The club the girl, her laugh, her lips. Her saying “yes” without hesitation. Her hand in mine, no coercion, no resistance – just two consenting adults, two strangers in a fleeting moment. And yet here I am, locked up like some predator.

There’s no winning in this. I’m either a monster or a fool, and the worst part? I don't even know which anymore.

“Mr Jaden Cole,” a guard grunts, interrupting my spiral. “You’ve got a visitor.”

My heart lurched, I thought briefly of who it could be, then I remembered Melanie was to return yesterday. It has to be her.

I stood up slowly, muscles stiff from hours of stillness. My thoughts racing faster than my steps as I followed the guard. What will she say? What can she say? Will I even recognize the person she’s become in the face of all this?

When I got into the visitation room, I spotted her instantly.

She was sitting rigidly in one of the plastic chairs with a desk in front, clutching her handbag tightly. She’s dressed in a navy-blue blouse and white trousers, casual, but there’s a tension in her posture that makes the whole look feel… rehearsed. Like she’s preparing for a meeting, not visiting her boyfriend in jail.

Her black hair is pulled into a low bun, neat and purposeful, as always. Her almond eyes, usually warm, playful, are guarded now. There's a distance in them that pierces more than any pair of cuffs ever could.

I paused for a second, just staring at her, she looks like she’s walked out of a different life, one that used to be mine.

“Mel,” I said, taking the seat across the table from her.

She didn’t smile nor reach for my hand.

“Jaden,” she nods.

Silence falls again, thick and uncomfortable.

“I didn’t do it,” I said softly. “You know I didn’t.”

Her gaze flickers, uncertain. “I want to believe you.”

“Want to?” I echo, stunned.

Her jaw clenches. “Jaden why didn’t you call me, why didn’t you tell me you were having a rough weekend? I could’ve cancelled the trip or returned earlier.

I didn’t know anything I had barely landed and I was already getting calls. First it was Brad, then the internet headlines and memes. Do you have any idea how humiliating that was for me?”

“This isn’t about your reputation,” I said, my voice low.

“The hell it isn’t!” she snaps. Her voice rises and immediately drops again, her hands fidgeting with her bag. “You’re not the only one whose life is spiralling, what am I without you?”

I sat back, exhaling. “I’m sorry, so you think I did it?”

She didn’t answer right away.

“I think…” she swallows hard, “…that I don’t know you as well as I thought.”

That stung deep.

We’d been together since our teenage years. I never for once thought she would doubt me, she was the one, the one I told everything to. The woman I built empire with. And maybe that was the problem. I was so busy building an empire, and maybe I didn’t notice the cracks forming underneath.

“I tell you everything,” I said, calmly. “I never keep secrets from you.”

“No,” she murmurs, “but you didn’t this time, and look where it has led to? You always liked control, to plan everything to perfection in your mind, you did change for a while but here is one moment you switched. Something goes wrong now and it’s hard not to wonder… was it a misstep? Or a misjudgement?”

I stared at her, unable to breathe for a second. “You really think I did this?”

“I don’t know what to think, Jaden,” she said, voice trembling now. “All I know is… the man I thought I loved wouldn’t be in this situation, he would’ve talked to me last weekend.”

We sat in silence again, this time, it hurt more than anything else.

“I’m sorry Mel, but now I need you” I said quietly. “More than I ever have.”

She looks down at the floor, then back at me. “Here I am, Jaden, I don’t know what to do!”

She said, shedding a tear.

“Neither do I, it was supposed to be just one night, I’m sorry that happened but now it feels like the whole world has been waiting for me to fall” I lamented, sinking my head into the cuffs on my wrist.

“We have to do something, Jaden,” she said.

I sat there, wondering how everything unravelled so fast.

I didn’t just lose my freedom. I might be losing her, too.

I barely had time to gather my thoughts before the guard walks back in.

“Mr Jaden Cole, you’ve got news,” he said eyeing me carefully.

“About what?”

“Your accuser.” He leans closer. “She’s demanding a formal court hearing. Claims she wants justice, publicly.”