Caleb moved faster.
His hand locked around Emily’s wrist and yanked her backward so hard she gasped.
“We’re leaving,” he said. His voice was still calm. Still controlled. “Emily and I are going home. We appreciate your concern, Officer, but this is between us.”
“Let go of her.”
“She’s my girlfriend.”
“Let go of her now.”
Thomas stepped into the hallway. “You heard the officer.”
Caleb’s jaw tightened.
For the first time all night, the mask slipped.
“Emily,” he said softly, “tell her.”
Emily was shaking so hard I could feel it through her bones.
“Tell her you’re fine,” Caleb said. “Tell her you want to go home with me.”
Emily looked at me.
I looked back.
And I said the only thing I could.
“You don’t have to say anything, baby.”
Emily’s face crumpled.
“I’m not fine,” she whispered.
Caleb’s hand moved again toward his jacket.
Officer Mendez’s hand moved to her holster.
“Show me your hands,” she said.
“I’m getting my phone.”
“Show me your hands.”
Caleb pulled his hand out slowly.
He was holding a phone.
And a small black handgun.
Diane screamed.
Thomas lunged forward, but Officer Mendez was already moving, her weapon drawn, her voice cutting through the chaos like a blade.
“Drop it! Drop it now!”
Caleb didn’t drop it.
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.
