Tomorrow is one phone call. Everything else follows from it.
Not the courthouse. This is where it starts, they do the paperwork with you, and it is free.
"I left my husband yesterday and I have my four-year-old daughter with me. There has been family violence for years, there has been drug use around my child, and last night he sent me a written threat to come to my workplace. I need to apply for a protection order and an interim parenting order."
Say "family violence," not "abuse." It is the legal term and it is what routes you correctly. It sounds like it means being hit — it does not. It covers intimidation, threats, coercion, and control, with no physical violence at any point. Years of that is family violence in the full sense of the phrase, not a lesser version of it.
Duty counsel is a free lawyer, no appointment needed. Ask them to write to him confirming Maple is safe and with you — better coming from a lawyer than from you.
Last night he sent a dated, written threat to come to a place you cannot leave, attached to a deadline. That is the clearest evidence you have ever had, and it needs no history to explain it.
It also lands on most of the things a court is required to consider — escalation, coercive control, a separation that happened days ago, drug use, and your financial dependence on him. All in one screenshot.
Do not answer the 24-hour demand. Not to negotiate, not to calm him down, not to offer a visit. If you meet the deadline, the threat worked — and tomorrow becomes "I was frightened, and then I arranged a handover" instead of "I was frightened enough to apply for an order."
Last night is the front page. The years before it are what make last night make sense rather than look like a one-off.
Use the other document. Start with the last twelve months, half an hour at a time, not late and not alone. It does not need to be written well. It needs to exist.
Right instinct. Wrong week. Sitting down with him, calmly, so Maple hears it from both of you is genuinely the best version of this. It just cannot be the next thing that happens.
He demanded to see her within 24 hours or he would come to your work. If a meeting happens now, that is what produced it. Everything after would be built on that.
It also cuts against the order. You cannot tell a court you are frightened of someone on Thursday and voluntarily sit down in a room with him on Saturday.
And it is never a trade. If it is offered in exchange for anything at all, it is not a meeting, it is a negotiation.
One call at 8:30. That is the only thing that has to happen tomorrow.