He pressed the barrel against Emily’s ribs.
“Everyone needs to calm down,” he said.
His voice was still soft.
Emily went completely still.
Officer Mendez’s radio crackled. Backup was coming. I could hear sirens in the distance, faint but growing.
“Caleb,” I said.
He looked at me.
“Let her go.”
“She’s mine.”
“She’s my daughter.”
“She’s mine,” he said again, and this time his voice cracked, just slightly, and I realized something terrible.
He believed it.
“I saved her,” Caleb said. “She was wasting her life. Wasting herself on people who didn’t see what she was. I made her better.”
“You hurt her,” I said.
“I loved her.”
“You hurt her.”
“She needed me.”
Emily’s voice came out small and broken.
“I needed you to stop.”
Caleb flinched.
“I gave you everything,” he said.
“You took everything.”
The sirens were louder now.
Red and blue lights washed across my living room walls.
Caleb’s hand was shaking.
“I never wanted this,” he said. “I never wanted—”
“Then let her go,” Officer Mendez said.
Caleb looked down at Emily.
For one horrible moment, I thought he was going to pull the trigger.
Then he let go.
