“You hit him when Dad isn’t home. With the brown belt. And you tell him his mom died because she left him.”
Silence spread across the yard.
Even the wind seemed to pause.
The officer closed his eyes briefly, holding something dark inside himself.
Then he crouched beside Mason.
“Can I see your back, champ?”
Mason looked at Angela.
Even now.
Fear still searched her face for permission.
Rex rested his nose on the boy’s shoulder.
That decided it.
Mason nodded.
When the officer lifted his shirt, Davis cursed under his breath.
Old scars.
Fresh wounds.
A child’s back turned into a map of cruelty.
Angela stepped backward.
“I didn’t—”
She never finished.
Two more patrol cars arrived soon after.
When she tried to run toward the house, Rex barked.
For the first time.
A sharp, thunderous bark that froze everyone in place.
The officers arrested her right there in the yard.
Mason didn’t fully understand what was happening.
Only that there were too many voices, too much movement.
He began to shake.
A social worker arrived later — a gentle woman named Claire.
“Hi, Mason.”
He didn’t answer.
“You’re going to come with me somewhere safe, okay?”
Mason looked at the truck.
The house.
The stable.
Sierra.
Then Rex.