VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — A 32-year-old mother was at a karaoke bar celebrating the end of a difficult relationship when her neighbor called her and said that her Virginia Beach apartment was on fire.

Five days later, her ex-boyfriend was arrested and charged with torching the home he once shared with her and her 6-year-old daughter.

Kelly Bruce Halverson is charged with four counts of arson and one count of attempted arson in connection to the July 25 fire at Pembroke Town Center Apartments. He is accused of targeting his ex-girlfriend, Erin, and setting fire to her balcony the day after she renewed a protective order taken out against him.

10 On Your Side spoke exclusively with Erin and agreed to refer to her by her first name to protect her privacy.

“My daughter could have been killed,” Erin said. “Her bed was completely torched. All her birthday presents from this year, everything she got for Christmas, everything is literally gone. It’s all melted into the ground. It’s really hard to believe that he would be capable of doing something like this.”

Halverson and Erin dated when she was 18 years old and remained friends even after breaking up. They began dating again a little more than a year ago, and Halverson moved in with Erin and her 6-year-old daughter. Erin said she began talking with Halverson about ending their relationship after she noticed a change in his personality and behavior toward her several months before the fire.

“We didn’t have a good relationship. We argued a lot,” Erin said. “It’s like it wasn’t him … he was always over-the-top, like he just wanted to be with me, and I didn’t want to be with him anymore. I just wanted him to leave me alone.”

“I reached out to his family a bunch of times trying to get them to help me because I didn’t know what to do,” Erin continued. “I could kind of just see him spiraling out of control.”

Erin gave Halverson a 30-day notice to move out of the apartment on June 24. She said his erratic behavior increased after she told him to move out of the apartment, and four days before he was supposed to be gone she made a startling discovery while taking a shower — Nair in her shampoo.

“That was the day I went to go file for a protective order, because after I confronted him about it he was just pacing up and down the hallway, acting really crazy,” Erin said. “He told us if we took legal action he would retaliate, and so we did anyway, and the protective order got served to him in my house.”

Erin filed for an emergency protective order, which banned Halverson from contacting her for three days. She went back to Virginia Beach Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court on July 23 and was granted a 2-week extension to the protective order, meaning that Halverson would be legally required not to contact her for that time as well, she said.

In the affidavit to get the extension to the protective order, Erin wrote that in the past Halverson had pushed her to the ground and slapped her across the face. She also wrote that on July 20 he threatened her:

“‘When this is over, you have no idea the storm I will bring into your life,'” he allegedly told her. “If I can’t have you no one can.”

Erin and her roommate went to Wanna B’s Karaoke Club and Restaurant after work to celebrate the end of her relationship and Halverson moving out of their apartment on July 25. It was around midnight when Erin got a phone call from one of her neighbors, who said that her apartment was on fire.

“We knew it was him,” Erin said.

Erin and her roommate left the karaoke bar immediately and went back to the apartment. Just as they arrived, Halverson called Erin’s roommate to check in on her, she said.

“I pulled up, parked my car, and Kelly called my roommate and said, ‘Hey, I heard there was a fire. Everybody OK?,'” Erin said. “It was like 10 minutes after the first firetruck was called, which makes absolutely no sense because how would he have known?”

Immediately after the fire, Halverson also began reaching out to Erin’s friends on social media.

“The first thing said to all of them was, ‘I didn’t do this.’ It was very, very surreal,” Erin said.

Erin said that all of her belongings were destroyed, including her daughter’s bed and toys. Their apartment wasn’t the only one that was damaged — eight other units were damaged by flames and smoke, and more than a dozen people were displaced.

Erin said she is staying with a friend until she can get into a new apartment, and she is trying to figure out how she and her daughter will rebuild their life moving forward. She has been granted a two-year protective order against Halverson, who is currently being held without bond at the Virginia Beach Correctional Center.

Erin said that she has been overwhelmed by the support the community has shown her since the fire. She has received physical donations, including a bed, and money through an online fundraiser that’s raised more than $3,000.

“It’s actually overwhelming in a good way — how the community has come together,” Erin said. “I appreciate that.”