Page 3 of Split Decision

We don’t have that luxury anymore.

“They escalated it,” he says.

“But why?” I ask. “Why now, after all this time?”

He shakes his head. “The why doesn’t matter yet.”

But it does matter.

It matters because escalation doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It doesn’t happen without an instigating factor. It happens because someone nudges it. It happens because someone has something to leverage and something to gain. These people don’t come out swinging blindly. Theyknow exactly what their target is and what they want as an outcome.

I swing my legs over the side of the bed and force myself to breathe evenly.

The youth center is clean. Every donation has been tracked. Every expense has been documented. I built it that way on purpose. After everything they put me through. After what they did to me the first time. They don’t get a second chance at trying to shut down my center again.

Luke stops pacing and looks at me. “They’re lining this up.”

The way he says it makes my stomach drop.

“Who is lining what up, Luke? We don’t even know who we’re fighting yet.”

He doesn’t answer directly. He reaches for his phone again. “I’m calling Brandon.”

There’s no panic in his voice. Just calculation. When he hangs up, he looks at me carefully.

“He’s coming over.”

“Okay.”

“And he’s bringing Marin.”

I frown. “Marin?”

“She’s his top-tier fix-it girl,” he says. “She does crisis management. Governance, compliance, that sort of thing. He said she’s handled stuff bigger than this, and he trusts her to help us navigate this political maze.”

Bigger than this.

I nod, not in agreement but in slow deliberation, something inside me shifting as the words register—crisis management, compliance, governance. Language built on structure and order. On control. On the subtle authority to decide what the story becomes, and who gets to tell it. Whatourstory becomes.

Brandon trusts her. That should make me feel better. It doesn’t.

Luke walks up to me and cups my face in his hands. “Baby, we’re not going through this alone,” he says.

I believe him. I just don’t know what else is about to walk into our house.

“This doesn’t scare me.” I put my hand on his, reaffirming our connection.

He studies me for a moment. “It should.”

“Not if you’re in it with me.”

“I’m with you.”

CHAPTER TWO

LUKE

Brandon doesn’t knock the way normal people knock. He pounds on the door as if he’s announcing himself to a stadium.