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“Noor! Pick up the fucking phone!”

Theo’s voice on the PA system makes me flinch and I almost drop the taser as I try to remember how to breathe. He never uses the system like that, and Zayn and I usually play music on it while we’re home. Holy shit, I think Theo scared the piss out of me.

It takes me a second to get my fingers to work, and I lean against the railing as I answer the phone when it rings again.

“Are you okay? Is any of that blood yours? We’re on our way but Arran may arrive first⁠—”

He didn’t come home with me because he had to get a bag of clothing from his house. I may need to tell him to just move in. The banging on the door pulls a scream from my lips, and I watch as Arran lets himself in.

“Who the fuck is this?” he asks, his eyes on the body still twitching on the stairs.

“Alexa is out of prison,” I say numbly, leaning forward to zap her again. “Did Zayn call you, Mom?”

“Yes, he did so good. He called the emergency number. I told him to stay in the safe room until you’re able to go upstairs. Call the police, okay? Jared is with us, and we have the footage to prove it’s self defense. We didn’t know she was out. I don’t even know how she got into the house yet.”

“Maybe you should stop tasing her so you can prove self defense,” Arran murmurs, dropping to his knees to kiss my fingers. “Are you sure she didn’t hurt you?”

“Everything hurts, but none of this blood is mine,” I whisper. I can taste the lie as blood from my split and quickly swelling lip drips down my chin. I must look like a mess. I’m going to scare Zayn at this rate. “At least I’m alive. I didn’t know⁠—”

I burst into tears and he pulls me into a hug to hold me.

“Jared isn’t going to have any issues proving self defense,” Rachelle says mildly, sniffling. Even though she sounds calm, I don’t think she is. “Alexa has kidnapped her before. Tase the bitch as much as you want, baby.”

“I have to get Zayn but I don’t want to scare him,” I whisper, my eyes moving up to the camera. I know he saw everything. Ugh. He’s going to need so much therapy after this.

“Take your sweater off and go,” he says. Alexa wheezes dramatically and I pass the phone to him, making sure to kick her as I shrug off my bloodstained sweater.

“Actually, I’ll call the police and say that I saw the attack on the cameras,” Rachelle says. “I’ll see you soon.”

I half climb, half crawl up the stairs because my legs keep failing me. During the fight, I didn’t focus on Alexa’s blows as they landed, but now my body is feeling every bruise as I use the wall to aid me as I rush to my room.

“Zayn!” I call out, my eyes on the closet.

“Mommy!” Zayn bursts out with tear tracks down his face and he careens into my body as he hugs me. I sink to the ground as we both cry, and I hold him tightly, thinking about how easily I could have lost him.

“Are you okay?” I breathe, hugging him. “I’m so proud of you for staying low and not stopping.”

“She’s a bad person,” he hisses. “Grandpa Theo is going to be so mad she got in here.”

“I know,” I murmur. I can hear voices downstairs and close my eyes as a gun is fired twice. Alexa is dead. I’m not sure who killed her or with what weapon since her gun was empty of bullets, and I don’t fucking care. “She’ll never be able to hurt us again, baby. It’s been handled. We can’t tell anyone, okay? Mommy shot her when we fought on the stairs. That’s how Alexa died.”

“I didn’t see a thing,” Zayn says stubbornly. “I called Grandma Rachelle but the video cameras aren’t working. I only left because I heard your voice.”

God do I love this kid.

“That’ll work,” I breathe.

“Zayn! Noor!” Rachelle yells, her panicked voice ringing through the house.

“We’re here!” I call back, smoothing back Zayn’s hair, waiting to speak again until she’s in the room with us. “When the cops get here, the cameras in the safe room aren’t working.”

“Got it. Theo will make sure they’re fixed later,” Rachelle says easily, recognizing the lie as she sinks onto the carpet to hug us. “Grandpa Jared won’t let the police anywhere near our sweet baby.”

I can hear the sirens wailing and I sigh, knowing it’s the beginning of a long night.

“Arran is about to get more education on how our family deals with a crisis,” Rachelle whispers in my ear, drying my tears.

“Mommy, before I go back to pretending, you were awesome,” Zayn whispers, making me huff out a laugh.