Chapter 2: Extraction
I did not wait for morning.
After the call with Garrick ended, I drove to the pharmacy where my mother was still waiting in the restroom. She looked smaller than I remembered, shoulders drawn in, one hand pressed against her side as if holding something in place. The pharmacist, a woman I had spoken to earlier, unlocked the side door and let us out through the service entrance.
We did not go back to her house.
I took her to a quiet extended-stay hotel on the other side of the city—paid in cash from the secure account, registered under a name Garrick would not recognize. Once the door was locked and the blinds drawn, I sat her down and examined the newest injuries under the bathroom light. Fresh bruising along the ribs. A split in the skin near her hairline that had already stopped bleeding. She flinched when I touched it but did not pull away.
“You’re not going back there,” I said.
She nodded once, eyes fixed on the floor.
“I filed the papers. He’s going to come looking.”
“Let him look.”
I made two more calls while she showered. The first was to the domestic-violence attorney, confirming that the emergency protective order request would be filed first thing in the morning. The second was to Ethan.
“She’s out,” I told him. “New injuries documented. I’ll send photographs within the hour.”
“Good. Keep her offline. No location sharing, no contact with mutual acquaintances. Garrick’s type usually escalates when control slips.”
“I know.”
After the call I uploaded the images to the encrypted folder and added a timed note of the pharmacy extraction. Then I sat in the second chair and listened to the quiet of the room while my mother slept for the first time in days without someone else’s rules hanging over her.
May you like
Garrick still believed he could force her home with threats.
He had not yet adjusted to the fact that the board had changed.
