“Definitely not.”
“No reporters.”
“Reporters?”
“There are two at the entrance.”
I looked through the blinds.
She was right.
“This is ridiculous.”
“A veteran shooting an armed HOA security contractor is news.”
“He wasn’t an HOA cop.”
“That distinction will take approximately four hours to disappear online.”
She was right.
By noon, headlines called him everything from HOA officer to armed enforcer.
Social media invented details.
I had apparently been Special Forces.
I was not.
Darren had supposedly kicked down my door.
He did not.
Somebody claimed Brenda personally ordered him to execute me.
No evidence supported that.
I learned an important lesson.
Facts move slower than outrage.
I stayed silent.
At eleven forty seven, Laura received a call.
She listened.
Said very little.
Then hung up.
I stared at her.
“Well?”
“The prosecutor has declined charges against you based on the current evidence.”
My shoulders dropped.
“Current evidence?”
