Brandon became furious.
He punched a hole in the bedroom door.
Then took her car keys.
When she tried to walk past him, he blocked the doorway.
The petition mentioned Daniel because Brandon had used Daniel as part of the threat.
Daniel read the sentence silently.
If you leave me, your brother is going to regret the day he ever brought me into this family.
Daniel read it again.
His jaw tightened.
“He said this?”
“That’s what she told me.”
“When?”
“Two weeks ago.”
“And she didn’t tell me?”
“No.”
“Why?”
I looked directly at him.
“Because she knew exactly what you would do.”
His eyes hardened.
“What does that mean?”
“It means you’d confront him.”
“You’re damn right I would.”
“Exactly.”
He stepped away from the island.
For several seconds he stood with both hands behind his head.
I knew the gesture.
He was trying not to explode.
Then he turned.
“What happened three nights ago?”
I had been hoping I would never have to tell him.
But silence had stopped protecting anyone the moment he opened my bag.
“Melissa finally told Brandon she was leaving.”
Daniel’s eyes stayed fixed on me.
“She waited until he came home because she thought if she stayed calm, maybe he would too.”
“What happened?”
“They argued.”
“Claire.”
“He took her phone.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“What?”
“She tried to call me.”
I swallowed.
“He grabbed the phone and wouldn’t let her leave the bedroom.”
“For how long?”
“She thinks about forty-five minutes.”
Daniel looked like he had forgotten how to breathe.
“She eventually got out after he went downstairs.”
“And the emergency contraception?”
That was the question I had been dreading.
I chose the words carefully.
“Melissa said something happened between them that she did not agree to.”
Daniel’s face changed.
Completely.
For several seconds, the kitchen was silent.
He looked at the package.
Then at me.
Then toward the floor.
“Did he hurt her?”
“She had bruising on her wrist.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“I took her to a clinic.”
His hands curled into fists.
“Where is she?”
“Safe.”
“Where?”
“I need you to promise me something.”
His eyes opened.
“You think you still get to make me promise things?”
“Yes.”
“Claire.”
“If you go after Brandon tonight, you could make everything worse.”
“I’m not going to sit here while he—”
“This is why she didn’t tell you.”
That stopped him.
I moved closer.
“She was terrified you would hear his name and drive straight to his house.”
Daniel said nothing.
His silence told me she had been right.
“She doesn’t need you to be her avenger.”
I looked at him.
“She needs you to be her brother.”
Daniel turned away.
It took almost a minute before he spoke again.
“Where is she?”
“At Rebecca’s.”
Rebecca Sloan was my closest friend from graduate school.
She lived twenty-five minutes away and had a small detached apartment behind her house.
Daniel knew Rebecca.
Brandon did not.
“She’s been there three days?”
“Yes.”
“And that’s where you’ve been going?”
“Yes.”
Daniel looked at me.
Suddenly the details he had been quietly collecting changed shape.
My late evenings.
The phone calls I took outside.
The new password on my phone.
The extra gym bag in my trunk.
I had not been meeting another man.
I had been taking clothes to Melissa.
Driving her to a clinic.