Chapter 2: He Wasn't Alone
**PART 2**
I walked into that precinct like I owned it.
Julian was already there, standing near the front desk in his pressed shirt, looking calm.
Composed.
Innocent.
He even managed a look of concern when he saw me.
"Valerie, thank God.
Your mother came to the house completely out of control.
I had no choice—"
"Don't." I said it quietly.
That was enough to stop him.
I walked past him without another word and found my mother sitting in a plastic chair against the wall.
Her left wrist was wrapped in a makeshift cloth bandage.
There was a bruise forming beneath her right eye.
She was seventy-one years old.
She weighed maybe a hundred and twenty pounds.
The officer on duty, a younger man named Briggs, stepped forward.
"Ma'am, your husband has given a full statement.
He says your mother entered the property and raised the fireplace tool in a threatening manner—"
"That fireplace tool," I said, turning to face him, "has been bolted to the wall mount since 2019.
It hasn't moved in six years.
I installed that mount myself."
The room went very quiet.
Julian's expression didn't collapse.
But something behind his eyes shifted.
Just slightly.
Just enough.
Officer Briggs looked at Julian.
Julian looked at me.
And then my mother whispered something from her chair that made my bl00d run cold.
"Valerie...
he wasn't alone when he came to my house."
---
Who was with Julian that night — and what did they know?
The full truth is darker than anyone in that room expected.
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