“She went for him,” he said quietly. “Not with a weapon. Just… lost it. Tried to shove past him. Slapping, scratching, screaming. Seth had to restrain her.”
“Oh my God.”
“She bit him,” Ethan added. “Drew blood.”
I clapped a hand over my mouth, nausea rolling hard.
“He pinned her on the floor and called the cops,” Ethan said. “He didn’t want to. But she was out of control. And the neighbors had already called about smoke.”
I slid down until I was sitting on the porch steps, my legs giving out beneath me.
“So,” I whispered, dread pooling thick and heavy in my gut, “the police came.”
“Yes.”
“And…?” My voice barely worked.
“She was arrested.”
The world seemed to tilt sideways.
“She— she got arrested?” I repeated stupidly.
“Yes, Beth.”
I stared at the peeling paint on the porch railing, my vision tunneling.
“She can’t afford bail,” he continued. “She maxed everything out. I’m flying back now to deal with the house, insurance, lawyers. It’s a mess.”
A laugh bubbled up out of nowhere—thin, hysterical.
“She’s going to think I did this,” I said.
Ethan was quiet for a beat. Then: “She already does.”
Ice slid straight down my spine.
“She asked Seth who called me,” he said. “He didn’t answer. But she knows you were there that night. She knows you talk to me.”
My heart began pounding so hard it hurt.
“I didn’t call the cops,” I said, tears burning hot behind my eyes. “I swear to God I didn’t.”
“I know,” he said. “But she won’t care.”
My thoughts started racing—work, my mom, my apartment, my car, every secret Sage had ever helped me with or held for me.
“She’s going to come after me,” I whispered.
“I won’t let her,” Ethan said firmly. “I’m filing a restraining order. Against her. For both of us if you want.”
That should’ve comforted me.
It didn’t.
Because I knew Sage.
Restraints, consequences, jail—those weren’t deterrents.
