Chapter 3: Justice Begins
The police arrived the next morning.
The bruises were photographed.
Doctors documented every injury.
Our apartment building's security cameras revealed my mother's daily visits.
Even worse, one of our elderly neighbors came forward.
"I heard screaming several times," she told investigators.
"I thought it was a family argument."
Another neighbor had recorded part of an argument through an open hallway door.
The recording captured my mother's voice.
"If you tell Jake, he'll think you're crazy."
That single sentence destroyed every lie she had built.
When detectives confronted her, she denied everything.
But the evidence kept growing.
She was arrested later that afternoon.
As officers placed her in the patrol car, she looked at me.
"I did everything for you."
I stared back.
"No."
"You did everything for yourself."
May you like
Then I turned away.
I never looked back.
