“Amanda—”
“No.” She shakes her head quickly, panic rising. “If he’s causing trouble for you, I’ll leave. I’ll go. Just… please, I don’t want to?—”
“Amanda, relax.”
Reid steps forward, taking her hand gently, his voice steady and calm as he guides her through breathing exercises. Inhale. Hold. Exhale.
At first, she resists. Then, slowly, she begins to unwind under Reid’s steady guidance, her breathing evening out as she focuses on him.
He waits until her breathing evens out, just a little, before speaking again.
“Leaving won’t fix this,” he says quietly. “He’ll keep coming after you. He’ll keep hurting you. We don’t want that.”
“Then why would you…” Her eyes fill with tears, her voice breaking. “Why would you ask me to do this?”
“Because we think we might finally have a chance to stop him,” Reid says, lifting a hand to cup her cheek with gentle, steady warmth. “For good. Then you can be free.”
Her breath catches.
“I need you to be brave right now, Amanda,” he continues. “I know you’re terrified. You have every reason to be. But this is your chance to change that. For your future self. That way, she doesn’t have to live like this anymore.”
A single tear slips down her cheek, and she looks at him for a long moment, something shifting behind her eyes—fear, yes, but something else too. Resolve.
Then, slowly, she nods.
For the next two hours, we sit with her.
And she talks.
At first, her story comes in pieces—hesitant, fragmented—but the more she speaks, the more confidence she gains, and the more it pours out. Everything she’s seen. Everything she’s endured. The things he’s done to her. To others.
The room grows heavier with every word.
She tells us how he had a political opponent attacked, and his house burned to the ground. Threats made about what will happen to his children in the future if he doesn’t toe the line. How he moves money around through multiple offshore accounts and shell companies. How smugly clever he thinks he is.
And how wrong he is.
It becomes clear, very quickly, that Amanda has been watching everything. Remembering everything. Even writing things down.
Codes. Passwords. Patterns.
Details no one would expect her to notice—but she did.
If we brought in a hacker, she could get them through his firewalls and into his secure data servers. Not only that, but she could tell them what to look for, too.
Finally she sits back, stretches her neck and shoulders. “That’s all I can remember for now,” she says, her voice drained but steady.
Luke steps forward and takes her free hand, the one Reid isn’t holding.
“Thank you, Amanda,” he says. “You’ve helped us more than you could possibly know.”
She manages a small smile. “I should be thanking you. I know what you’ve risked for me these past few weeks. I don’t take that lightly. If he’s been putting pressure on you then that’s only because he’s trying to get at me.”
Reid nods. “Maybe. Maybe you’re the one saving yourself.”
She inhales slowly, then lets it out. “Yeah,” she says. “I think I am.”
After she leaves, we stay where we are, the room still carrying the weight of everything she’s shared.