Part 3
Deputy Ortiz got out of the cruiser and looked back at the Tahoe with open disbelief.
“I told you to remain at the substation,” she called.
Travis slammed his door. He was tall and broad through the shoulders, with a heavy winter coat stretched across his chest. His eyes found Ethan first, then moved to Grace as she appeared in the cabin doorway.
“There you are,” Travis said. “Get the girls. We’re going home.”
Grace’s hand tightened around the doorframe.
Ethan remained at the bottom of the steps with Scout beside his leg. Every instinct he had told him to place himself between Travis and the cabin, but this was Grace’s decision and Deputy Ortiz’s scene. He would not turn her escape into a contest between two men.
Ortiz held up one hand. “Mr. Mercer, go back to your vehicle.”
“That man took my family.”
“Your wife contacted us herself. Return to the Tahoe.”
“They’re my children.”
“And right now, I’m conducting a welfare check.”
Travis looked beyond the deputy. “Grace, tell her you lost your mind. Tell her he talked you into this.”
The girls had gathered behind their mother. Maisie hid inside Grace’s coat, while Lily stood close enough to shield the younger children.
Grace descended one step.
“No one talked me into leaving.”
Travis laughed, but the sound held no humor. “You walked five kids into a snowstorm. That proves you’re not fit to make decisions.”
“I walked them away from you.”
His expression changed.
Deputy Ortiz noticed it. “Mr. Mercer, vehicle. Now.”
He obeyed, but only after staring at Grace long enough to make Nora begin crying.
Ortiz interviewed them separately. Ethan waited in the workshop while Grace spoke inside the cabin. Another deputy arrived to remain with Travis, who paced beside the Tahoe and demanded to know why a stranger’s word mattered more than a husband’s.
Grace described the night she fled. She showed Ortiz the bruises on her arm and the fading mark beneath her eye. Lily confirmed that Travis had shoved her and threatened to hurt her again.
The younger girls did not offer complete stories, but their bodies spoke whenever Travis raised his voice outside. Emma covered her ears. June crawled beneath the table. Maisie asked if the police were going to make them sleep at home.
Ortiz wrote everything down.
Travis insisted Grace bruised easily. He said Lily was dramatic and Ethan had manipulated them. According to him, Grace was unstable, ungrateful, and incapable of caring for the children without his money.
Each answer seemed designed to explain why everyone else was at fault.
When Ortiz returned to the yard, Travis walked toward the cabin.
“You’ve heard her nonsense,” he said. “Now I’m taking my daughters.”
The second deputy blocked his path. “You’re not going near the house.”
Travis pointed at Ethan. “He’s sleeping with my wife.”
Grace came onto the porch before Ethan could respond.
“I slept beside my children,” she said. “Ethan slept in his workshop because I asked him to.”
“You expect anyone to believe that?”
“I don’t care what you believe anymore.”
For the first time since arriving, Travis appeared uncertain. Anger had always worked inside the privacy of their home. Here, in daylight, with witnesses and uniforms, it looked smaller.
Then Lily stepped onto the porch.
Travis’s voice softened immediately. “Come on, sweetheart. Tell the deputy your mother got scared and overreacted.”
Lily stood beside Grace.
“You pushed me.”
“I barely touched you.”
“You said you’d make sure I couldn’t get up next time.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“You said it.”
Travis took another step, and the deputy ordered him back. Scout’s muscles tightened, but Ethan kept one hand against the dog’s shoulder.
Ortiz turned to Travis. “Based on the statements and visible injuries, I’m placing you under arrest while we investigate the domestic assault complaint.”
“This is ridiculous.”
“Put your hands where I can see them.”
Travis’s face flushed dark red. He looked at Grace as the deputies secured his wrists.
“You’re going to regret this.”
Ortiz stopped.
“What did you say?”
“He’s upset,” Grace replied, though her voice shook. “That’s what he says when he wants me to know he’ll wait.”
The deputy added the threat to her notes.
As Travis was placed in the cruiser, Lily suddenly ran inside. She returned holding an old phone with a cracked screen and no service plan.
“I hid this in my coat,” she told Ortiz. “Dad said Mom was lying about what happened, so I thought maybe you should hear it.”
The deputy accepted the phone. “Hear what?” Lily looked at her mother. “I made it record…”
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