I wanted to shout that the girls had told me about their mother.

I wanted him to understand that he could not make me open the door.

The dispatcher brought me back to the practical question.

“Can he see the children from there?”

“Not from the front.”

“Keep everyone away from the windows.”

Derek shouted that the girls belonged with him, that I did not know what was going on, that they were only three and did not know what they were saying.

I did not answer each accusation.