He had already chosen his defense.
Emily was emotional.
I was old.
Everyone else was mistaken.
Only Daniel could be trusted.
“I know what I saw,” I said.
He stepped close enough that I could smell soap on his shirt.
“You need to stay out of my marriage.”
Emily suddenly spoke.
“I was trying to leave you.”
Daniel turned.
For the first time that morning, she looked directly at him.
Her voice shook, but she did not lower it.
“That’s why you were angry.
You found out I was leaving.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“Stop.”
“You checked my bank account.
You checked my phone.
You kept asking where I was going.”
“Emily.”
“And when you found the bag—”
He moved toward her.
I reached into my pocket.
Daniel froze when he saw my phone.
The emergency call had connected.
I raised it to my ear.
A dispatcher was speaking.
Daniel went pale.
“Mom, hang up.”
I gave the dispatcher the apartment number.
Daniel’s voice sharpened.
“Hang up the phone.”
I gave the address.
He reached toward me.
Emily cried out, “Don’t touch her!”
That stopped him for perhaps one second.
It was enough.
I stepped backward into my bedroom and kept the phone in front of me.
“Police are coming,” I said.
Daniel stared at me in disbelief.
“You called the police on your own son?”
There was genuine injury in his voice.
As if I had betrayed him.
That almost broke my heart.
Almost.
“I called them for Emily.”
He looked past me at his wife.
“Do you understand what you’re doing?”
Emily’s fingers closed around the edge of my robe.
Daniel continued.
“You think you’re going to walk out of here and destroy everything we’ve built?”
She whispered, “I just want to leave.”
“You’re pregnant.”
The words landed in the hallway like something dropped from a height.
I turned toward Emily.
