“He called me boy.”
Nathan looked away.
That word bothered him.
More than he had admitted.
Jordan continued.
“He said he’d bury me in charges.”
“I heard.”
“And you’re sitting there saying maybe?”
Nathan looked at his son.
“I am saying we prove what can be proved.”
Jordan shook his head.
“That is such an FBI answer.”
Denise, sitting across from them, looked out the window to hide a smile.
Nathan did not.
“It’s the correct answer.”
“No.”
“It’s the safe answer.”
Nathan’s expression changed.
“Be careful.”
Jordan laughed.
“There it is.”
“What?”
“The voice.”
Nathan frowned.
“What voice?”
“The one you use when everybody has to calm down because you’ve decided emotion is inconvenient.”
Denise looked toward Nathan now.
Jordan continued.
“You weren’t the one in the grass.”
That hit.
Nathan said nothing.
Jordan looked out the window.
The ride home continued in silence.
At the Ellis house, Alicia was waiting on the front steps.
Zoe stood behind her.
Jordan opened the SUV door.
Alicia ran toward him.
She touched his face.
His shoulders.
His wrists.
“Are you hurt?”
“I’m okay.”
She hugged him.
Then she saw the grass stains.
Her expression changed.
“Who did this?”
Jordan laughed weakly.
“Apparently we’re waiting for evidence.”
Nathan closed his eyes.
Alicia turned.
“What does that mean?”
“Nothing.”
Jordan walked inside.
Zoe followed him.
Alicia stared at her husband.
“What happened?”
Nathan told her.
Everything.
No softening.
When he finished, Alicia was silent.
Then:
“And what did you do?”
“I asked command to preserve the evidence.”
Her expression hardened.
“Nathan.”
“What?”
“That is our child.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
He recoiled slightly.
She immediately regretted it.
But did not apologize.
Nathan looked toward the front door.
“I wanted to pull that man off him.”
“Then why didn’t you?”
“Because I’m not allowed to become the thing I’m angry at.”
Alicia stared.
He continued.
“If I use my title to punish Mercer before an investigation, then Jordan learns the wrong lesson.”
“What lesson?”
“That rights become more valuable when your father has influence.”
Alicia folded her arms.
“And what happens to people whose fathers don’t?”
Nathan looked at her.
“That is exactly why I didn’t.”
The video went online that evening.
Not one video.
Six.
The woman with the stroller posted hers first.
By midnight it had three hundred thousand views.
By Sunday afternoon, several million.
The clip most people saw began too late.
Jordan was already on his knees.
Mercer was already yelling.
Nathan’s SUV had already entered the park.
The viral version lasted forty-eight seconds.
Mercer: “Keep talking and I’ll bury you in charges.”
Jordan: “Keep performing for the cameras.”