"You recorded everything?" Jade asked.
He held up the tablet. "The whole thing."
She looked at him for a moment—this boy, his father's eyes, her own jaw—and felt something move through her chest that she did not have a word for.
"Good," she said. "You did good, baby. Come inside."
She called Evelyn after she uploaded both recordings to the shared drive Marcus had set up. Evelyn answered immediately, told Jade her footage was clear and steady, and that she had already saved it in three places because she had seen enough news stories to know things disappeared. Jade thanked her; she meant it.
Marcus handled the rest. Soon the video was public. It spread rapidly, shared over 40,000 times. That evening, it was on three local news stations. The headline on one of them read: "Army Vet's Military Dogs Stand Down Officers in Clover Ridge."
Finn sat on the living room couch watching the share count climb on the tablet, Zeus warm and heavy against his side. He did not fully understand what 40,000 meant in terms of scale—not really. He understood that people were watching, that those people were angry on his mother's behalf, that people were on their side. That felt enormous enough.
Jade stood in the kitchen doorway watching him. Her hands had stopped shaking an hour ago.
Her phone buzzed. Marcus texting: "Turn on Channel 7."
She turned it on just in time to see Chief Lena Whitaker standing behind a podium in a pressed uniform, reading from a prepared statement in a careful, neutral voice: the incident was under review; the department took all such matters seriously; Sergeant Victor Harlan had been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of that review.
Jade turned the television off. She stood in the quiet of her kitchen and allowed herself one long, slow breath. Maybe it was over, she thought. Maybe it was that simple.
She almost believed it.
The following morning arrived quietly. Jade was up before dawn, the way she always was—an old habit from years of reveille that no amount of civilian life had managed to break. She made coffee, let Zeus and Ares out into the backyard, and sat at the kitchen table with her phone face down in front of her.