I Forgot I Ever Loved You (Zoe and Hayden) novel Chapter 42

Captain Briggs seemed to sense the underlying tension and offered an awkward smile.

"Mr. Thorne, it's nothing major. Just sign a written caution, pay the fine, and she can go. Are you absolutely certain you want to call her emergency contact?"

Hayden had kept the woman firmly in his arms the entire time. From the bar to the precinct, he hadn't let go once.

Asking the captain to process her like a common criminal was putting the man in a tough spot.

"Make the call."

Both Captain Briggs and Nadia were stunned.

Zoe's biological father's side of the family only consisted of Grandmother Eleanor and an uncle.

All these years, they assumed Zoe was living a comfortable life married to Hayden.

Grandmother Eleanor was elderly and in poor health.

If she found out Zoe was in the police station, she would be worried sick.

Nadia was currently trying to save her own skin. She was anxious but completely powerless to intervene.

Seeing Hayden's insistence, Captain Briggs had no choice but to look at him helplessly.

"Well, the thing is, we don't have a contact number for Ms. Lynd's family."

Hayden immediately rattled off a phone number. Under Hayden's intense scrutiny, Captain Briggs reluctantly dialed the number provided.

When the ringtone echoed from the very phone Hayden was holding, Nadia's brain practically short-circuited.

Wait—

What the hell kind of game was this bastard playing?

Right in front of Captain Briggs, Hayden picked up his own phone, held it to his ear, and spoke with deadpan seriousness. "Hello."

Captain Briggs was thoroughly bewildered.

This Mr. Thorne was Ms. Lynd's family. He was standing right there! Why make him call?

But Hayden was a man nobody in the New York elite dared to cross. What could a lowly police captain do?

He could only awkwardly hold his phone, speaking face-to-face with Hayden.

"Hello, is this the family of Ms. Zoe Lynd?"

It wasn't just him; even the other officers in the precinct couldn't help but shoot curious glances in their direction.

"I am Zoe's husband. Go ahead."

Nadia gasped.

"I... I don't need to do that, right?"

Captain Briggs wasn't about to let her off. He hadn't climbed to his rank without being highly observant.

Hayden had personally delivered his own wife to the precinct to go through the motions—clearly, it was a show of absolute authority.

There was no way Briggs dared to show leniency to Nadia, who had been brought in with her.

Nadia clutched her phone tightly, refusing to call anyone.

Suddenly, the closed doors of the lobby were pulled open.

A man with a commanding presence, wrapped in a black trench coat and bringing in the chill of early spring, strode inside.

He walked straight up to Captain Briggs.

Standing next to Hayden, he was just as tall.

The man possessed similarly sharp, chiseled features, radiating an aura that easily matched Hayden's.

"I'll write her statement."