My stomach clenched.
"I need you to walk me through what happened, okay? From the top. Help me give them the full picture, and we canstart straightening this out."
My throat felt tight again, but I managed to rasp out, “Okay.”
I didn't start with the kidnapping or the gun. I wentallthe way back. To all the red flags I ignored, the financial control, the gaslighting, the beating where Marcus almost killed me, the stalking. I didn't want to bring up the drugging or the rape yet if I didn't have to, so I skipped over that for now.
I glanced down the path, half expecting to see Marcus somehow still slinking around in the dark even though he'd already been taken away in an ambulance. "Today, I was walking home from the school, and he jumped me. I must've blacked out."
Charlie stayed silent and let me talk without interruption.
I lifted the towel slightly, grimacing at the blood that had soaked into it. "When I woke up, he was pulling me out of his car down at the park entrance. He dragged me up here and threatened me with that gun."
His eyes sharpened with sudden interest. "He parked at the entrance and brought you up here on foot?"
"Yeah. And then he called Eli to bait him."
He leaned back to look toward the road, then turned his attention back to me. "Does he drive a silver Mazda?"
I nodded.
He stood up fast and flagged down the nearest officer. "Hey, hit up the place on the corner. Ask to see their CCTV from the last couple of hours. Look for that silver Mazda parked on the street."
The other man gave a quick nod and hurried off.
Charlie crouched back down. "That might be what we need to get Eli out of that car."
I exhaled a shaky breath and pressed the towel back to my head. "Good. Because he doesn't belong there."
"Do you have anything else that could back all this up?"
I hesitated. My brain was working slower than I wanted it to, but eventually, I nodded. "There's a camera at my front door. It's caught Marcus trying to get me to let him in more than once. Caught the first time he went after Eli, too."
My thoughts started to trip over themselves, so I had to take a second to straighten them out. I was starting to think I'd gotten another concussion when Marcus pistol-whipped me. "But I – I don't have my phone. I think I dropped it somewhere."
Charlie frowned. "Can anyone else access the feed?"
"Eli can."
"Good. We'll get to that."
"And - " I winced. "My neighbour, Mrs Cavanagh. She knows what's been going on. She saw what Marcus did to me a few months back, and she's been helping out since."
He gave a quick nod. "Alright. I'll give her a ring. I'll be back in a few minutes." He stood and walked off, already flagging down another officer on the way.
I sat there, alone for the first time since leaving the school, and I finally noticed how cold I was. The blood on the towel was starting to freeze, and my hands wouldn't stop shaking. Not from fear anymore or even the adrenaline. Just the come-down. The kind of trembling that takes over when your body finally catches up and realises it survived something.
I stared blankly at the space ahead of me. The spot where Marcus paced. Where Eli almost got shot. My stomach lurched, and for a second, I thought I might throw up. It didn't feel real. Any of it.
The pain filtered in next, slow and creeping. My head pounded with a low, punishing throb, and my neck ached. I winced as a fresh wave of dizziness rolled through me. I had to close my eyes to keep myself steady.
I heard movement somewhere next to me. Maybeanother officer or someone else. I didn't know. I didn't look up.
"You need to be looked at," he said gently. "We can drive you to A&E. Someone'll go with you."
"No."
He paused. "Sir, I really think – "
