Moana
"The police are downstairs," the old housekeeper said, sounding both confused and concerned, and a little sheepish as she surely knew what she had just walked into. "They want to speak to you."
Edrick and I suddenly looked at each other in shock.
"I'll go," he said, grabbing his shirt off of the floor and putting it on. "You can stay here, Moana."
But Selina shook her head and pointed at me. "They want to talk to her. They asked specifically for Moana."
As Selina spoke, my eyes suddenly widened. Surely the police wanted to talk to me about Ethan and Kelly, but why now? They really came in the pouring rain? Couldn't they have called first? Edrick, who seemed to be thinking the same thing, narrowed his eyes.
"Well, it's not a good time," he said. "Why didn't they call first instead of just showing up?"
The old housekeeper shrugged. "I don't know. But they asked specifically for Moana."
Edrick looked at me again and opened his mouth to speak, but I shook my head and grabbed my sweater off of the chair.
"It's fine," I said. "I'll go."
The police were waiting for us in the lobby downstairs, as our new bodyguards were given strict orders not to let anyone in who wasn't one of us. Edrick and I quickly put on our shoes and took the elevator down, and when we came out I saw two officers sitting on the bench in the lobby waiting for us. They both stood when we entered.
"What's all this about?" Edrick asked, peering past them to look outside. Thankfully, because of the pouring rain, it seemed as though the paparazzi weren't lingering around outside like a bunch of hyenas. If pictures went around of two police officers coming into the building so soon after what happened at the warehouse, it was certain that there would be more media harassment about it.
"Good afternoon," one of the officers said, who I recognized as the one that gave us a ride home after the incident at the warehouse. "I apologize for the intrusion, but we wanted to come and talk to you personally."
"What do you need to talk about?" Edrick asked. I could tell that he was feeling nervous, and so was I. I couldn't help but wonder if something had happened to Ethan or Kelly in jail, or something of the sort.
"Well, we have some questions for Miss Fowler," the officer said, looking at me. "If you'd like to come down to the station with us, we'd like to perform an interview. We'd like your side of the story as to what happened leading up to the events at the warehouse a couple of weeks ago, and we need to take a formal statement."
Edrick suddenly frowned and protectively put his arm around my shoulders. "This is very sudden," he said. "I don't want to make my fiancee dredge up what happened that night without any time to prepare. If you call back another time, maybe we can set up a date—"
"I'm afraid it needs to be done today," the officer interrupted grimly. "This whole incident is causing a lot of media attention, and Ethan said — on the record — that... Miss Fowler went to the warehouse willingly."
My eyes widened. "I did not!" I said, feeling my anger begin to bubble up inside of me. "He's a liar. That's not what —"
"Whatever you want to say will need to be saved for the interview," the officer said gently with a polite smile.
"So you mean to interrogate my fiancee over something that my mentally insane, illegitimate half-brother said? You know he's full of shit, right?" Edrick asked, sounding agitated now.
The officer sighed and put his hands up in a gesture of surrender.
"It's not an interrogation, Mr. Morgan," he said. "It's just an interview. We know that Ethan is not telling the truth, but we'd like to get Miss Fowler's statement first." He turned then to look back at me. "Now, if you'd like a ride down to the station, we could get this all over with today. Eventually, you may need to testify in court."
I was still shocked by it all. Of course Ethan was lying, but... If the truth came out that I was trapped that night because I was trying to leave with Ella, would he and Kelly and Olivia get away with what I did? What if I got in trouble instead for attempted kidnapping since I took Ella without permission?
No, I thought to myself. That was a ridiculous thought. I was clearly manipulated into going, and even if it wasn't clear enough, it didn't really matter. Either way, Ethan still tried to kill a pregnant woman and a little girl.
But what really scared me the most was the thought of having to be interviewed on what had happened that night. I had seen clips of interrogations online where distressed victims were made to cry or have mental breakdowns over bringing up everything that happened, and I didn't want to be one of those people. Right now, the last thing I needed was to have a flashback and wake up in the hospital.
Suddenly, Edrick pulled me aside and spoke quietly. "You don't need to go if you don't want to," he said. "And if you want a lawyer because of what happened that night, I can get you the best lawyer in town."
I shook my head. "No," I said. "It's okay... I'll go. It's better to just get this over with now, and there's no reason for me to get a lawyer. Unless... The situation with Ella..."
"Don't worry about that," Edrick reassured me. "This is all Ethan's fault. You don't have anything to worry about."
I nodded reluctantly, then took a deep breath and turned back to face the two waiting police officers.
"I'll go with you," I said, pulling my sweater more tightly around my shoulders. "But I want Edrick to come with me. Otherwise I won't go." I nodded my head toward Edrick and stood up straight, holding my chin high.
The officer who was speaking before nodded understandingly, then smiled politely again. "Of course," he said. "If you'd like to just grab your things, we can take you both."
Edrick and I quickly went back upstairs to grab a few things before heading out. Neither of us knew how long exactly this "interview" would take, so we told Selina to just give Ella dinner and that we would handle it ourselves later. Selina seemed worried about me, but I was intent on going. So long as I didn't have any flashbacks about that night, I was certain that I would be fine. I just needed to answer their questions truthfully. They already said themselves that they knew that Ethan was bending the truth.
On the way there, however, as the rain battered against the window of the cop car, I felt my anxieties beginning to rise again. I kept seeing intermittent flashes of the gun in Ethan's hand, and it made me begin to wonder if the flashbacks would become too much during the interview.
"You can do this," my wolf said, offering me some words of comfort on the drive. "If you get through this interview, it will ensure that Ethan and Kelly can never do something like this ever again."
I swallowed as I looked out the window, feeling comforted by Edrick's arm around my shoulders.
"I hope you're right," I responded. "I really hope that you're right."