Chapter 7 - The Interrogation Room
They had David in an adjacent room. He hadn't been formally arrested yet, but he hadn't been allowed to leave either. When I opened the door, he looked up with hollow, defeated eyes and quietly told me he heard her screaming. "She's on her way to federal lockup," I replied, sitting across from him. "It's over, David. All of it." He let out a long, shuddering breath, burying his face in his hands, swearing he didn't want any of this.
"What you wanted doesn't matter," I said coldly. "What matters is what you allowed to happen." I slid a photograph across the table. It was an image of our father's bruised, swollen arm from the hospital. David looked at it, and a choked sob tore from his throat. When he squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head, I slammed my hand on the metal table, the sound echoing like a gunshot, and commanded him to look at it. He jumped, forcing his eyes open to stare at the physical evidence of his cowardice.
"That is the man who worked two jobs to put you through college," I told him. "That is the man who sat by your bed for three weeks when you had pneumonia as a kid. And you let that woman beat him like a stray dog, just so you could pay off a bad loan."
"I was scared of her!" David cried out, tears streaming down his face. "She destroys everything she touches! I thought if he just signed the papers, she would leave him alone!"
"She would have killed him, David." My voice was quiet now, lacking all the rage, filled only with absolute certainty. "Once she had the house, she wouldn't need him around to contest it. You know that." He stared at me, the horrific realization dawning on him. He had been complicit in an attempted murder. His voice was dead when he asked what would happen to him now.
May you like
"You tell the truth," I said. "You testify against her in federal court. You confirm every document, every email, every threat. And if I do?" "Then I will ask the U.S. Attorney to charge you with criminal negligence instead of conspiracy. You'll do time, David. But maybe not federal time." He nodded slowly, entirely broken, and promised to tell them everything.
I stood up, pushing my chair back. "Don't do it for me. Don't do it for yourself. Do it because it's the first decent thing you'll have done in ten years." I walked out of the interrogation room without looking back. The air in the precinct felt lighter, the oppressive weight of Vanessa's lies finally lifted. I pulled out my phone and dialed the hospital, checking on my father's status. When the nurse warmly told me he was awake and asking for me, a profound sense of relief washed over me. The monsters were locked away. It was time to go back to the only family I had left.
