I close my eyes for half a second, then open them again. “What do you need from me?”
“Documentation,” she says immediately. “Anything formal you have. Your role. Your funding. Your hours. Your background checks. Anything that shows we followed protocol.”
“I can get it to you tonight,” I say.
“Andi,” Ms. Hargrove adds, voice thick with worry, “if they force my hand… I need you to know I’m trying. You’ve done more for those kids than some parents ever will.”
My throat burns. “I know. Thank you.”
When the call ends, the silence in the room feels heavier than before.
Luke’s voice comes out low. “They’re not just trying to discredit you. They’re trying to isolate you. They’re trying to make even those who believe in you start to question you.”
I swallow hard. “They want to take away the place where I’m strongest.”
Luke’s gaze doesn’t move from my face. “Then we make it the place where we’re loudest.”
I stare at him. “Meaning?”
He takes a breath. It’s the same breath he takes before he steps into a fight. “We prepare for the review like it’s a trial,” he says. “Because that’s what it is.”
A chill runs down my spine. Not fear, but iron-clad resolve. Because I know something now that I didn’t know before. They’re scared. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t be trying to erase me from children’s lives.They’d let me talk. They’d let me look unstable on my own.
But they can’t.
So they’re building a case. Which means they think I’m building one too. And maybe I am.
Luke
The day after the youth center call, I head to the gym earlier than usual. Not because I want to hit something. I do. But because I need to move. Thinking makes me dangerous in the wrong way lately. It puts my anger in my hands, and if I’m not careful, those hands will do something I can’t take back.
Mack is already there, watching Shane work the bag, arms crossed like he’s guarding an empire.
He looks at me and immediately reads my face. “They’re coming for the center,” he says, not asking.
I nod. “Anonymous complaint. Board pressure. Parent panic. The whole nine yards.”
Mack’s jaw tightens. “Cowards.”
Shane slows, sweat running down his neck. “They're trying to ban her?”
“Temporarily,” I answer. “Pending a review, so they say.”
Shane’s eyes flash. “That’s how it starts. ‘Temporary’ turns into ‘indefinite’ once people get comfortable with her being gone.”
Mack’s gaze is hard. “Not if we don’t let it.”
He steps closer, his voice dropping to the tone he uses when he’s done talking and ready to act. “You listen to me, Luke. They’re going to try to make her look unstable. That means they’ll provoke her, push her, and make her react. Exactly the way an opponent in the ring would to wear you down.”
I exhale sharply. “I know.”
Mack nods once. “Then your job is to keep her steady.”
My chest tightens. “My job is to keep her alive.”
Mack doesn’t disagree.
Instead, he asks the question he’s been circling since the proposal. “Y’all set a date?”
