Chapter 13 - HE CAME BACK
I was discharged two days later.
Not because Julian wanted me gone.
Because my doctors said I was ready.
There was something satisfying about that.
I left in a wheelchair with Chloe on one side and Dad on the other.
Reporters waited outside.
I ignored them.
For once, I didn’t care what strangers thought.
Dad moved us into his home temporarily.
Security cameras covered every entrance.
Police patrols passed regularly.
Julian remained missing.
That first night, I barely slept.
At 1:38 a.m., I heard glass break downstairs.
My eyes opened.
I reached for my phone.
Dad appeared in my doorway.
Finger to his lips.
Chloe slept in the room across the hall.
Another sound.
A floorboard.
Dad moved downstairs.
I called 911.
Then I heard a voice.
“Audrey?”
Julian.
My blood turned ice cold.
He was inside.
I locked my bedroom door.
“Audrey, we need to talk.”
His footsteps climbed the stairs.
“Police are coming.”
“I know.”
He sounded almost peaceful.
“I just need five minutes.”
The doorknob turned.
Locked.
“Open the door.”
“No.”
“Audrey.”
“No.”
He hit the door.
I flinched.
“Stop fighting me!”
That sentence took me back eleven years.
Every disagreement.
Every apology I didn’t owe.
Every time he told me I was too emotional.
Too sensitive.
Too difficult.
I looked at my casts.
Then at the wheelchair.
Then at the baseball bat Dad had left beside the bed for emergencies.
I grabbed it.
Julian slammed the door again.
Wood cracked.
Then another voice came from the hallway.
“Step away.”
Dad.
Silence.
Julian laughed.
“There he is.”
“Hands where I can see them.”
“You know, Thomas, Audrey thinks you’re a hero.”
“She doesn’t need a hero.”
Dad’s voice remained calm.
“She needs you to leave her alone.”
“You turned her against me.”
“No.”
I shouted through the door.
“You did that yourself!”
Everything went silent.
Then Julian yelled,
“You ungrateful bitch!”
The bedroom door burst inward.
Julian rushed inside.
His face was wild.
There was a handgun in his right hand.
I raised the bat.
He pointed the gun at me.
Dad came behind him.
“Drop it.”
Julian spun.
For one awful second, the gun moved between us.
Then Chloe appeared at the end of the hallway.
“Daddy?”
Every adult froze.
Julian looked at her.
His expression softened.
“Sweetheart.”
Chloe backed away.
“Don’t.”
That one word shattered him.
“I’m your dad.”
“You hurt Mommy.”
“No.”
“You did.”
Tears streamed down her face.
“You tried to make her die.”
Julian’s gun lowered slightly.
Police sirens approached.
He looked toward the window.
Then back at me.
“You did this.”
I shook my head.
“No, Julian.”
I held his gaze.
“You did.”
He raised the gun.
Dad moved.
The gun fired.
May you like
Chloe screamed.
And my father fell.
