Chapter 3 - The Interrogation RoomAn hour later, I found myself walking through the harsh fluorescent lighting of the police precinct. I didn't want to go, but Detective Miller needed me to confirm statements and review the body-cam footage for the preliminary report.
When I walked past the holding cells, I saw them.
My mother was sitting on a metal bench, her hair wild, her expensive coat stained with drywall dust. My father looked broken, holding his wrist as if he’d sprained it swinging the bat. Clara was hysterically crying in the corner cell, smearing her makeup across her face.
The moment my mother spotted me, she rushed to the bars, gripping them with white knuckles.
"Maya! Thank God!" she shrieked. "Tell these barbaric officers to open these doors right now! Tell them it was a family misunderstanding!"
I stopped, standing ten feet away, staring at her like she was a stranger. "A misunderstanding? You brought baseball bats to a house in the middle of the night."
"It was supposed to be your house!" Clara screamed, stepping up behind Mom, her voice shrill and laced with venom. "You owed us that money! If you had just given us the house five years ago, Michael wouldn't have lost everything! We went there to teach you a lesson! To break your precious things like you broke this family!"
"Clara, shut up!" my father barked, though his voice lacked conviction. He looked at me with hollow eyes. "Maya... please. We didn't know someone else lived there. We thought you still owned it. You have to help us. The woman who lives there... she's pressing felony burglary and hate crime charges. We could go to prison!"
"You should go to prison," I said softly.
My mother gasped, her eyes widening in absolute shock. "How dare you! We are your parents! Clara is your sister! You caused this! If you hadn't moved out and cut us off, we wouldn't have had to resort to this! You pushed us to this edge!"
The utter lack of accountability was mesmerizing. They had broken into a stranger's house, terrified a mother and her baby, destroyed $40,000 worth of property, and somehow, in their warped reality, it was still my fault.
May you like
Detective Miller stepped out of his office, holding a tablet. "Miss Lin, come in here. I want you to watch the video before you make any official statements."
I turned my back on my family's screams and walked into the office.
