Click.
Time seemed to freeze.
The officer was out of the car, weapon drawn. “Step away from the vehicle! Now! Hands where I can see them!”
Dad’s hand hovered over the door. He looked at me, and I looked back. My one eye was swollen shut, but with the other, I stared him down.
This is the moment, I realized. My life stops being yours to destroy.
He stepped back, raising his hands slowly.
The next thing I clearly registered was a female EMT kneeling beside me. Her knees pressed into the hot tar, ignoring the discomfort. Her hands were steady and warm as she stabilized my neck.
“You’re safe now, sweetheart,” she whispered, her voice cutting through the fog of pain. “We’ve got you.”
Her face hardened when she saw the door-shaped imprint swelling across my temple. She looked up at the officer standing nearby.
Behind her, officers were surrounding my parents. One officer was holding his phone, listening to the dispatch recording that had been relayed to him. He replayed the 911 call on speaker—my gasped plea, the sounds of the assault, my parents arguing about “dealing with” me when they got home.
“That’s attempted murder,” the officer muttered, his jaw tight. “And the premeditation is on the recording.”
Dad lunged forward against the hood of the cruiser, shouting, “She’s a liar! She threw herself into the door! She’s mentally unstable!”
Another officer stepped between them, forcing Dad’s face onto the hot metal of the car hood. “Sir, you have the right to remain silent. I suggest you use it.”
Mom staggered out of the car, slurring excuses, trying to wipe the wine from her skirt. “I had a drink, so what? Kids exaggerate. She’s dramatic. Olivia, tell them you fell!”
The EMT helping me shot her a glare that could have cut glass. “Your daughter has a depressed skull fracture, ma’am. That is not drama. That is a felony.”
In the ambulance, pain thundered through my head like a freight train, but for the first time in my life, I didn’t swallow it. I didn’t try to hide the grimace. I let myself feel the truth:
I was finally out. But as the doors closed, blotting out the sight of my parents in handcuffs, a new fear seized me.
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