My husband woke me up in the middle of the night. “Get up. Into the yard. Now.” We hid in the bushes in our pajamas, and when I saw who was entering the house, my hands began to tremble.

I remained frozen in the bushes while Grayson began to cry silently and Harper finally fell asleep against my shoulder from exhaustion, and I watched in disbelief as Colton raised his hands calmly when the officers approached him.

They spoke for a few minutes in low voices, and one of the officers even placed a reassuring hand on Colton’s shoulder before nodding toward the yard where we were hiding.

“You can come out now,” Colton called softly in our direction, his tone gentle in a way that contrasted sharply with the tension of the past fifteen minutes.

My legs felt unsteady as I stepped out from behind the shrubs with Grayson clinging to me, and when I reached Colton, I could barely keep my voice from shaking as I whispered, “Explain everything to me right now.”

He looked at me with weary eyes and said, “They were not here by accident, Brielle, they were here because of me,” which made the ground feel as though it shifted beneath my feet.