Chapter 26: Unlikely Alliance

The sirens wailed to a crescendo as police flooded Emily’s house, their boots thundering up the stairs. Sam slumped against the wall, blood trickling from his split lip, ribs aching with every shallow breath. Emily huddled on the bed, sheet clutched around her like armor, her face pale and bruised, eyes wide with shock. Jake was gone—vanished into the night like a shadow, but the aftermath was a storm of flashing lights, shouted questions, and probing flashlights. Paramedics arrived next, wrapping Emily in a blanket and checking her vitals, their voices a blur: “Ma’am, can you tell us what happened? Any injuries we can’t see?” She whispered fragments—intruder, assault, fight—while they examined the welts on her neck, the bites on her skin. Sam gave his statement through gritted teeth: he’d heard screams, broken in, fought the attacker off. No mention of the feeds; that secret burned in his chest like acid.

The police scoured the room, taking photos of the disarray—the overturned nightstand, blood smears, torn pajamas. “We’ll put out an APB on Jake,” the lead officer said. “He’s got priors—domestic stuff from a year back. You two did good holding him off till we got here.” But Jake had a head start; patrols swept the neighborhood, finding nothing. Emily refused the hospital at first, insisting on staying put, but the paramedics convinced her of a quick check for internal injuries. Sam rode with her in the ambulance, the question she’d whispered—”How did you know?”—hanging unspoken between them.

At the ER, under harsh fluorescent lights, they were separated briefly—Emily for exams, Sam for X-rays (cracked rib, minor concussion). He paced the waiting area, guilt gnawing deeper. This was his fault; his passivity had let it escalate. Madison’s game had peaked, and he’d been her pawn. When Emily emerged, bandaged and in fresh scrubs, her eyes met his—haunted but sharpening with resolve. No longer the fragile girl from the feeds; trauma had forged something harder. “We need to talk,” she said, voice steady despite the tremor. “Now. Before my mom gets here.”