Chapter 7 - Breaking and Entering
Three figures were standing on my back deck.
Ryan, Mallory, and my father.
Ryan was holding a heavy crowbar he had pulled out of the trunk of his car. Mallory was shining her phone flashlight against my back sliding glass door, while my father stood behind them, pointing frantically toward the kitchen window.
They hadn't given up. Cornered, exposed, and desperate, they had decided to take matters into their own hands. If they couldn't legally take the house, they were going to force their way in and establish residency before the local police could sort out a family civil dispute.
I hit the emergency panic button on my phone app, which triggered the high-decibel exterior siren and broadcast a pre-recorded automated warning through the security speakers: “Warning: You are trespassing on private property. Law enforcement has been notified.”
On the live feed, I saw Ryan jump back, dropping the crowbar with a loud clatter against the wooden boards. Mallory screamed, shielding her face from the flashing strobe lights mounted under the eaves.
“Dad, are you crazy?!” Ryan yelled, his voice captured clearly by the microphone. “She has cameras everywhere! The cops are coming!”
“Break the glass!” Dad shouted back, his voice shrill with blind panic. “It’s my money in that house! You have a right to shelter! Break it now before she gets home!”
I stepped hard on the gas pedal of my sedan, pushing sixty-five down the residential connector road toward Apex, my hands gripping the steering wheel so tightly my knuckles turned translucent.
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When I pulled into my driveway five minutes later, two Apex police cruisers were already parked across my lawn, their blue and red emergency lights flashing dramatic, rhythmic patterns against the dark brick exterior of my house.
Ryan, Mallory, and my father were standing by the edge of the driveway in handcuffs.
