Tonight was frightening, and it was also the best evidence you have ever had.Everything before today was a pattern that took an hour to explain. This is one screenshot a judge reads in ten seconds.
A dated, written threat to turn up at a place you cannot leave, attached to a deadline and a demand, is coercive control in its most legible form. It needs no context and no history to be understood.
When a court decides on a protection order, there is a list of things it is required to consider. That one message hits most of them at once — escalation, a pattern of coercive and controlling behaviour, a very recent separation, substance use, and your financial dependence on him.
The messages to your mother matter too. It shows the behaviour reaching past you to your family, and it may mean she can be named on the same order.
He is the most valuable thing that happened today. A witness who is his friend, with no reason at all to help you, is worth several of yours. That he knew why you were calling before you said a word is itself evidence of a known pattern.
Ask him to write down what he knows in his own words, dated today. Nothing more. Do not tell him what to say or what would be useful — anything that reads as scripted loses its value entirely.
Do not answer the 24-hour demand. Not to negotiate, not to calm him down, not to offer a compromise visit. Answering a threat with compliance teaches that threats work. It also weakens tomorrow, because the position you want is "I was frightened enough to apply for an order" — not "I was frightened, and then I arranged a handover."
Silence overnight is not denying anyone parenting time. Contact gets dealt with tomorrow, properly, through duty counsel.
Keep the screenshots, but keep the original thread on the phone as well — screenshots can be challenged, originals cannot. Same for your mother. Blocking him now would cut off the record at the exact moment he is generating it himself.
This is the front page of your file now. What time he got home, what he said in his own words, what the messages said, what you did — including that you warned your boss. That last part matters more than it sounds: it shows the fear was real enough to act on, and that is what is being assessed.
If he shows up, call 911. Not security, not a manager going out to talk to him. Workplaces want to handle these things quietly and that instinct is wrong here.
The question has changed. It is no longer "what is the fastest route." It is now:
"I am applying for a protection order and an interim parenting order. I have a written threat that was sent to me last night."
Ask specifically whether the threat to attend your workplace supports applying without notice to him. Those are not routinely granted, so do not count on it — but a dated written threat with a stated deadline is exactly the kind of thing that argument exists for. The worst answer you get is no.
Bring the screenshots printed if you can manage it.
The history list still gets written. It just moved to second place, and it can wait a day.