Chapter 5
PART 5:
The campus officer spoke quickly.
“Hold on. Mason Keller has had issues with her before, but that doesn’t mean—”
The detective’s eyes sharpened.
Daniel heard it too.
“Before?” Daniel said.
The officer froze.
The detective turned fully toward him.
“What issues?”
His face tightened.
“I just mean campus rumors.”
“No,” Daniel said. “You said before.”
Nobody moved.
The doctor looked between them.
The detective closed the laptop slowly.
“Officer, did Lily make a prior complaint?”
The campus officer looked toward the hallway.
That one glance answered everything.
Daniel stepped closer.
“What did my daughter tell you?”
The officer raised his hands.
“Sir, calm down.”
Daniel stopped.
His voice dropped.
“Do not tell me to calm down while my child is lying there with her jaw wired shut.”
The detective moved slightly between them, but her eyes stayed on the officer.
“Answer the question.”
The officer exhaled.
“She came to campus security last week. She said Mason was following her. Sending messages. Waiting outside her lab.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Lily had almost told him.
Campus feels different lately.
Just weird.
The detective’s face hardened.
“And what did you do?”
“We advised her to avoid contact.”
Daniel opened his eyes.
“You advised my daughter to avoid the man stalking her?”
“It wasn’t stalking,” the officer said too quickly. “It was a misunderstanding. They had a disagreement at a party.”
“My daughter doesn’t go to parties,” Daniel said.
The officer looked away.
The detective wrote something down.
“Where is the report?”
“It wasn’t formal.”
“Why not?”
The officer said nothing.
The detective looked at him for a long moment.
Then she said, “Because his father sits on the board?”
The officer’s silence filled the room.
Daniel turned back to Lily.
Her lashes rested against her bruised cheek.
She looked impossibly young.
He remembered her first day of kindergarten.
The pink backpack.
The way she ran back to hug him three times before going inside.
He remembered telling her the world was safe if she was brave and kind.
May you like
Now he wondered if that had been the first lie he ever told her.
👉 By morning, Daniel learned Lily had asked for help twice — and the school had chosen a donor’s comfort over her safety.
