Evan fights them, face red, eyes feral.
“Get off me!” he shouts. “You don’t know who you’re messing with!”
Boone doesn’t even look at him.
He pulls his phone from his pocket.
“That’s it,” he says, calm and absolute. “I’m calling Carson. He’ll get the backup here.”
William Ross’s head snaps toward him.
“That will not be necessary,” William says sharply.
Boone dials anyway.
“It is,” he replies. “Now it is.”
Sirens feel inevitable before I even hear them.
William turns on Faith. “Get in the car. Right now.”
She shakes her head, tears spilling freely now. “No.”
“This is not a negotiation,” he snaps.
She steps forward instead.
“I’m not going with you,” she says. “I don’t feel safe.”
The police arrive fast. Two cruisers, lights flashing, drawing a small crowd. Officers move in immediately, separating everyone, hands up, voices firm.
“What happened here?” one of them asks.
Everyone starts talking at once.
Evan launches into it, indignant and loud. William backs him up, controlled but furious, framing this as a misunderstanding, a family issue, a woman who’s “confused” and “emotionally compromised.”
The officers listen.
Then one of them turns to Faith.
“Ma’am,” he says gently. “What do you want to do?”
The world goes quiet.
Faith swallows. Her hands tremble, but she lifts her chin.
“I want to leave,” she says. “With him.”
She points at me.
“I didn’t come back willingly,” she continues, breaking and strengthening all at once. “I’ve been watched. Isolated. I don’t have my phone. I asked for help.”
William’s face drains of color.
Evan steps forward. “That’s not true?—”
“Sir,” the officer snaps, stepping between them. “Step back.”
