Chapter 4
Detective Alvarez was back at the hospital within an hour, her notebook open, her face serious.
Lauren told her everything.
About the abuse. About seeing Tyler push me. About the text messages between Tyler and Marcus planning to erase the footage.
She handed over her phone, letting Alvarez copy all the screenshots.
Mason sat on my lap the whole time, coloring with a pack of crayons a nurse had brought him, occasionally piping up to confirm what his mom said.
“Daddy said Auntie Bridge was a bad lady,” he said, coloring a picture of a dog blue. “He said she took all his money. But I like Auntie Bridge. She gives me cookies.”
Alvarez smiled at him, a small, sad smile.
When she was done, she closed her notebook, standing up.
“Thank you, Lauren,” she said. “This is more than enough. We already have the backup security footage from Rose’s cloud server. Combined with your testimony, the texts, and Mason’s statement… we have a rock solid case.”
She turned to me.
“Tyler and Marcus are being arrested as we speak. Charges of aggravated assault, tampering with evidence, conspiracy, and domestic abuse. They’re looking at a lot of years, Bridget. A lot.”
I let out a breath I felt like I’d been holding for 28 years.
Tyler was in jail.
Marcus was in jail.
They couldn’t hurt me anymore.
They couldn’t hurt Lauren or Mason anymore.
Alvarez left, and Eli came back in, bringing good news of his own.
“The judge signed a temporary restraining order against your parents too,” he said. “They tried to get access to the company’s bank accounts this morning, tried to fire all the department heads and put their own people in. The judge blocked it. They’re not allowed within a hundred feet of you, the company, or any of the properties. If they come near you, they go to jail.”
My parents.
I’d almost forgotten about them in all the chaos.
They’d tried to steal Grandma’s company before I was even out of surgery.
I shouldn’t have been surprised.
They’d chosen Tyler over me every single time. Why would this be any different?
“Thank you, Eli,” I said, my voice tired.
“Anytime,” he said. “Rose would have wanted me to take care of you. And for what it’s worth… I’m on your side. All the way. This company is yours. It always has been. Rose built it for you, even when you didn’t know it.”
He left, and Lauren and Mason stayed with me all afternoon.
Mason colored me a dozen pictures, taping them all to the wall by my bed.
Lauren called a domestic violence shelter, making plans to move into a safe house with Mason until Tyler was in prison for good.
“I have a better idea,” I said, when she hung up.
She looked at me, her eyebrows raised.
“Grandma left me the lake house up in Litchfield,” I said. “It’s big. It’s got four bedrooms, a big yard for Mason, a security system that’s even better than the one at the main house. It’s far away from here, far away from Tyler and my parents. You and Mason can stay there as long as you want. For free. Forever, if you need to. It’s safe. I promise.”
Lauren stared at me, tears welling up in her eyes again.
“I can’t do that,” she said, shaking her head. “That’s your house. Your family’s house. I can’t just—”
“You are my family,” I said, cutting her off. “And that house is just wood and stone if there’s no one in it to love it. Grandma would want you there. She always loved you, you know. She used to tell me she was glad Tyler married someone so kind. She just didn’t know how bad he was to you.”
Lauren let out a wet laugh, wiping her eyes.
“She did love me,” she said, smiling through her tears. “She used to slip me extra pie at Thanksgiving. She’d wink at me, like she knew. Like she knew I needed something sweet to get through the day with Tyler.”
“Then it’s settled,” I said. “As soon as I’m out of here, we’ll go up to the lake house. Together. All three of us. We’ll start over.”
Mason looked up from his coloring, his face lighting up.
“Can we get a dog?” he asked. “A big one? To protect us from bad guys?”
I laughed, the first real laugh I’d had since Grandma died.
“Absolutely,” I said. “We can get the biggest, fluffiest dog in the whole world. He can sleep at the foot of your bed every night.”
Mason cheered, jumping up and down on the chair so hard his crayons fell on the floor.
For the first time in as long as I could remember, I felt something I hadn’t felt in years.
Hope.
That night, after Lauren and Mason left to go pack their things, I was alone in my hospital room.
The pain in my back was bad, but the nurse gave me meds that took the edge off.
I stared at the pictures Mason had colored, taped to my wall.
A blue dog. A pink house with a yellow sun. A picture of me, him, and his mom holding hands, all smiling, with a big red heart over our heads.
A soft knock on the door made me jump.
It was Sarah, the paramedic.
She was in her street clothes now, jeans and a t-shirt, holding a paper bag.
“Hey,” she said, smiling. “I just got off shift. Thought I’d check on you. Brought you some chocolate pudding. Hospital food sucks, and I remember you saying you loved chocolate when we were in the ambulance.”
She walked in, setting the bag on my nightstand, pulling out a cup of pudding and a spoon.
“You didn’t have to do that,” I said, my throat tight.
“Sure I did,” she said, sitting down in the chair. “Someone’s gotta look out for you. Those people you call family… they’re not worth the dirt under your shoes. But you? You’re worth fighting for.”
She opened the pudding, handing it to me.
I ate it slowly, the sweet chocolate melting on my tongue.
No one had ever done something so small and so kind for me, just because they wanted to.
Not my parents. Not Tyler.
Only Grandma.
And now Sarah.
And Lauren. And Mason.
“Thank you,” I said, when I was done. “For everything. For believing me. For standing up to my dad. For… for being there.”
Sarah smiled, reaching over to squeeze my hand.
“That’s what we do,” she said. “We look out for each other. And hey, if you ever need anything—someone to help you move, someone to beat up your brother if he ever gets out, someone to eat bad takeout with while you watch terrible movies—you call me. Okay?”
I nodded, tears running down my face.
“Okay,” I said.
Sarah stayed with me for another hour, telling me funny stories about her job, making me laugh until my side hurt.
When she left, I lay back in my bed, staring at the ceiling.
Tomorrow, the doctors would start physical therapy.
They said I might never walk again.
But for the first time in my life, I didn’t feel alone.
I had people who loved me.
May you like
People who would fight for me.
And I was going to fight right back.
