Chapter 156: Terrific "That wasn’t the same kid," Jack muttered for the fourth time. "That wasn’t the Peter Carter I used to mess with. Did you see what he did to Holloway? I’ve never—" He cut himself off, shaking his head like words couldn’t do it justice. "Dude’s been hiding some serious rage," Tyler Hayes said, trying for casual but landing somewhere closer to nervous. "We all knew he was smart, but nobody thought he had... whatever that was." "Yeah," one of their friends muttered. "Smart people don’t usually flip desks like they’re made of Legos." Sofia Delgado stood nearby with Lea Martinez, the two girls watching the police lights flicker across the street. Sofia’s face was a mix of shock and a reluctant, almost dangerous admiration. Lea, on the other hand, looked like she’d swallowed a lemon and it was still fighting back. "I can’t believe Peter did that," Sofia said, shaking her head in disbelief. "I mean... good for him if Holloway was doing something to Emma, but Jesus. That’s... a lot." Lea didn’t miss a beat, her voice dripping with venom. "Of course Peter Carter thinks he can solve everything with violence. Typical toxic masculinity bullshit." Sofia’s head snapped toward her. "Are you serious right now? He was protecting his sister, Lea. What would you have done—write Holloway a sternly worded email?" Connor Hayes was already in full performance mode, phone out, live-streaming like the apocalypse had finally given him his big break. "Guys, this is insane! Peter Carter—yeah, the quiet nerd—just beat the shit out of our vice principal! I’m hearing Holloway’s face is completely destroyed. This is going viral. Like, cancel-your-plans viral." Near Madison’s Range Rover, the commotion drew Mia and Ashley Kim, sprinting from the library where they’d been pretending to study. "Madison!" Ashley called, gasping for breath. "What the hell happened? Someone said Peter got arrested?" "And that Emma’s involved?" Mia added, taking in the tear tracks streaking Emma’s face, the hollow, stunned look in her eyes. Before Madison could respond, Mia’s phone buzzed violently in her hand—Tommy Chen flashing on the screen with half a dozen missed calls already logged. She answered on the first ring. "Tommy—" "What the fuck is happening?" Tommy’s voice blasted through the speaker, loud enough to make a few nearby students glance over. "I’m getting texts that Peter beat up Holloway and got arrested. And he’s not picking up. Tell me this is some kind of messed-up prank." "It’s not a joke," Mia said, her voice low but steady as another police cruiser rolled into the lot. The flashing lights painted her expression in alternating bands of red and blue. "Tommy, I can’t explain everything right now, but Peter’s okay. He’s—" "I’m coming to the school," Tommy cut in, no room for argument. "Right now. My mom’s driving me." Sarah hung up her own call with their mother and faced the small crowd at the Range Rover. "Mom’s on her way to the police station," she said, voice trembling but eyes hard. Ashley and Mia exchanged a look—one of those silent friend-conversations that spoke volumes. Then Ashley stepped forward. "Madison, you should go with him." Madison frowned. "What?" "Peter’s going to need someone there who actually cares about him," Mia said plainly. "Someone who’s not family. Emma needs to stay here until she calms down, and Sarah’s gotta handle the family side. But Peter..." She let the sentence hang, heavy with implication. "He shouldn’t be alone in there." Emma’s voice was raw, frayed to threads. "Maddie, please go. I’m okay now. I’m safe. But Peter... he did this for me. He can’t sit in a cell thinking nobody’s on his side. Go to my brother." Ashley put a steadying hand on Emma’s shoulder. "We’ve got her. And Sarah. You go deal with your boyfriend before he starts thinking he’s the bad guy in this story." Madison’s chest tightened with gratitude that threatened to spill over. These girls didn’t need a speech to understand what Peter had sacrificed—they already knew. "Thank you," she said quickly, hugging them both in turn. "Go," Sarah ordered, the way someone gives permission for something that doesn’t actually need it. Madison broke into a run toward the police cars, only to be stopped by an officer’s sharp, "Family only in the vehicle!" "I’m his girlfriend," she said breathlessly, yanking out her phone and pulling up photos—Peter’s arm around her, blurry grins, the kind of pictures that didn’t lie. "Please. He doesn’t have anyone else right now." The officer’s gaze flicked from her designer coat to the gleaming Range Rover she’d just abandoned, to the raw panic still written across her face. Something softened in his expression like any dad would do. "You can ride to the station," he said finally, "but once we get there, you wait in the lobby." "Thank you," Madison said, climbing into the back of the cruiser. Peter sat cuffed beside her, staring out the window like the world beyond the glass had nothing left to offer him. When Peter saw her, the carefully maintained mask slipped for the briefest heartbeat—just enough for the steel in his eyes to soften. "Madison, you shouldn’t be here. This is going to get messy, and I don’t want you—" "Shut up," Madison cut in, her voice low but sharp enough to draw blood. She stepped as close as the handcuffs would allow, close enough for him to feel her trembling. "I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be." Back at the school, the rumors were no longer rumors—they were wildfire, and everyone was warming their hands on the scandal. Teachers huddled like survivors after a shipwreck, speaking in the kind of hushed tones people use when the shark is still circling. "We all knew," Mrs. Henderson murmured to the cluster of department heads. Her voice carried the bitterness of someone who’d swallowed the truth for too long. "We all suspected, but nobody wanted to touch it because of his family connections." "The way he looked at certain students," Ms. Chen added, her lips curling with disgust. "Always finding excuses to call girls to his office for ’disciplinary consultations.’" She almost spat the words. "I should’ve reported him years ago." "Who would have listened?" Mrs. Garcia from English replied, her tone flat and fatalistic. "His father runs this place. We’d be the ones getting fired. Or blacklisted. Or worse." Off to the side, Isabella Rodriguez wasn’t listening so much as calculating—running mental equations about Peter that made her pulse quicken in ways she hated to admit. His violent, unflinching defense of Madison wasn’t just loyalty; it was a declaration of what he was capable of. And that terrified her almost as much as it thrilled her. ’He’s not just intelligent and mature,’ she realized, watching the police cars disappear around the corner. ’He’s capable of anything when it comes to protecting the people he loves. Absolutely anything. I am sorry to say this in this situation but... I am turned on. Gods I love this idiot more and more.’ The thought should have scared her. Instead, it made her want to be there for him even more. She felt the wrongness of it burning in her chest—this heat, this hunger—considering they’d had fucked in her office not long before the chaos. But desire didn’t care about timing, and Peter’s feral edge had only stoked it higher. The thought should have made her recoil. Instead, it made her want to be closer, to see what he’d look like if he ever turned that dangerous devotion on her behalf. Across the hall, Nurse Valentina Luna was lost in a quieter storm. She’d been drawn to Peter’s mind first—the sharpness, the self-possession—but she’d also caught glimpses of gentleness, the kind that made her imagine something lasting between them. Now she was trying to reconcile that boy with the one who had, moments ago, torn through an office like a thunderstorm in human skin. Somewhere, in the deep, guilty parts of her heart, she knew the truth: she didn’t want to let go of either version. ’But if Trent was threatening his sister...’ she thought, recalling the uneasy suspicions that had long hovered around the vice principal’s behavior. ’What else could Peter have done?’ The decision crystallized before she could fully admit it to herself. She would go to the police station—but remain in the background. Close enough to help if needed, distant enough to protect both their reputations, until she understood the full scope of what had really happened. Across the school, chaos continued to swell as students and faculty alike processed the carnage they’d witnessed. The administrative wing had been cordoned off as a crime scene, and the building was slowly being evacuated while investigators meticulously documented the destruction Peter had wrought. Media vans were arriving now, their lights flashing, cameras trained on the aftermath, capturing every smashed monitor, splintered desk, and bloodied wall. The magnitude of Peter Carter’s actions began to sink in—not just to the students and faculty, but to anyone who would see the story unfold later that night. He had saved his sister—but potentially at a catastrophic cost to himself. He had beat up a predator, yet created a scandal that could haunt his image for years. He had acted with the kind of unflinching, instinctive protectiveness that defined true character—but done so in a way that might obliterate everything he had worked to build. And yet, as the last police car rounded the corner, carrying both reckoning and uncertainty toward the station, one truth remained undeniable: Emma Carter was safe. Whatever else happened, whatever legal or social consequences followed, Peter had accomplished the only thing that truly mattered. His sister was safe. The nightmare was over. Everything else was just details.