Joe stared at me, his nostrils flaring. “But… you can’t do that.”

“That’s what I said, but there is no other solution, the way I see it. Charlene is more important. They think it’s me, but it wasn’t, and if it was her… I have to protect her. She’s just a child.”

Joe rose to his feet, and he started to pace back and forth. “I can’t believe this. I can’t believe it.”

“I’m gonna do it,” I said. “I have to. For my daughter’s sake. It will ruin her life if she is convicted.”

He kept shaking his head and rubbing his neck. “No, no. There has to be another way. The guy raped you. We can’t let him get away with it. We simply can’t.”

“But there is no other way, Joe.”

He paused, then hid his face between his hands. I couldn’t tell if he was crying or raging in anger.

“Joe?”

He lifted his gaze and looked at me. That’s when I realized it. I could see it in his eyes. I stood up, suddenly feeling completely sober.

“It was you, wasn’t it? You did it? You hit Travis with Charlene’s truck?”

He exhaled deeply but didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. I already knew.

“You’re kidding me!” I almost screamed. “Why would you do that? Why, Joe?”

His nostrils were flaring, tears streaming down his cheeks. “I… I was so angry. Years of bottled-up anger just… made me lose it. I kept imagining him hurting you again and again and couldn’t sleep at night. So, one day I took Charlene’s truck and drove to Ridge Manor. I waited for him to leave his house, then followed him downtown. It wasn’t planned, I promise you, it wasn’t. It just happened. I saw him walk across the street and that’s when I lost it. I couldn’t believe he had hurt you and was still allowed to walk around a free man. I hit him with the truck. I didn’t plan it, I promise. I just… I couldn’t control it.”

I stared at Joe in shock, unable to comprehend what he had just confessed to me. He had hit Travis with Charlene’s truck, risking everything just to seek revenge for what he had done to me. I reached out and took his hand in mine.

“Joe, why didn’t you tell me?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

“I was scared,” he replied, tears still streaming down his face. “Scared of what would happen to us, to our family, if anyone found out. I didn’t want to lose you, Billie Ann. I love you so much. And now I am losing you anyway, how’s that for irony, huh?”

I felt tears prick at the corner of my eyes as I looked at Joe, the man I had been with for eighteen years, the man who I thought I knew everything about. But at that moment, he seemed like a stranger to me.

“We have to tell the police,” I said firmly, my hand still clasping his.

“No, Billie Ann, we can’t,” Joe replied, shaking his head. He pulled away from me. “They’ll arrest me, and our family will be ruined. I’ll lose my job, and we’ll lose everything.”

“But Joe, you committed a crime,” I said, my voice firm. “You have to take responsibility for your actions. And they already know—they think I did it, and they might think Charlene did it.”

Joe sighed heavily, rubbing his face with his hands. “I know. I’m not sure what to do. I just couldn’t let him get away with it, Billie Ann. I couldn’t.”

“I understand that, Joe,” I said softly. “But we have to do the right thing. We have to tell the truth.”

His voice was shaking now. “I’ll go to jail. And what about our children? They need us.”

“But Joe, we can’t just keep this hidden.”

“I know, I know,” he said, his head hanging low. “But please, just give me some time to think.”

I nodded slowly, still in shock from what had just transpired. I couldn’t believe this was happening to us. “Okay, but it’s only a matter of time until they charge me or blame Charlene.”

“I know,” he said, his hand still clasping mine tightly. “I’ll figure something out. I promise. Let’s just go to bed for now.”

I watched him walk up the stairs to our bedroom, and suddenly I couldn’t shake the feeling that things were about to get much worse before they got better. I didn’t feel good about it, and there was no way I could just go to sleep, knowing this. It tormented me for an hour, and that’s when I made the decision. It was the right thing to do, even if it felt awful. It was my duty. I had sworn to uphold the law. I was suspended, with a killer out there—I was the only one who was still looking for Emma and Marissa. And I needed to protect my daughter.

I grabbed my phone and called the station.

Moments later they arrived.

SIXTY-SEVENBILLIE ANN

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Officer Steele was on call this evening, and as he came to my door, he looked at me with sadness in his eyes. I explained the situation to him, and to the Chief, and we all agreed that Joe needed to be taken in.

Even if it broke my heart to do so.

I nodded and let him and Officer Craig inside.

“He’s in the bedroom. Up the stairs and to your right.”

“Will he be hostile?” Steele asked.

I sighed. “It’s possible.”

Officer Craig placed a hand on my shoulder and bobbed his head. “We will take it from here, Wilde. I’m sorry that it has come to this.”

“Me too,” I said. “Me too.”

I watched as they marched up the stairs and into my bedroom, then closed my eyes and braced myself for the reaction. It came promptly.

“What is going on here?” my husband yelled.

I couldn’t hear what they were saying but knew they were telling him to go with them quietly. I had done this many times myself as a younger officer, but never to a colleague’s spouse. Someone they used to see at our yearly Memorial Day picnic, or who would come in and pick me up regularly with flowers and stealing me away from work on our anniversary or my birthday. They knew Joe, and that had to be tough. I know it was for me.

I saw his face as they escorted him out and down the stairs. He was fully dressed; they had let him do that. His face was red with anger, his eyes ready to kill. When he saw me, he started to yell and scream at me, his voice suddenly booming through the house.

“Why? Billie Ann? I thought we agreed on this. Why have you done this? Why would you do this to me?”

I wanted to explain, to tell him that I had been left with no choice, but the words wouldn’t come. Tears welled in my eyes and streamed down my cheeks. I couldn’t stop them no matter how hard I fought. Seeing the man I loved like this, in handcuffs, being taken away, screaming and cursing at me, made me lose it completely. I tried to avoid his eyes, but he put his face close to mine, and hissed, “This is not the end of it. This is not the end.”

“That’s it, we’re leaving, come on,” Steele said and pushed Joe away from me.

He growled at me, then did as he was told. I watched him be guided into the back of the cruiser, before they took off.

Then I closed the door and slid to the floor, sobbing.

“Mom?”

I looked up and saw Charlene at the top of the stairs. Behind her stood Zack and William.