Chapter 1 - THE SOUND OF SIRENS
The 911 operator kept me talking while Daniel stared at my phone as though the device had suddenly become more dangerous than the broken plate in his hand.
“Ma’am, are you able to move away from your husband?”
“Yes.”
I took one slow step backward.
Daniel immediately moved toward me.
“Rachel, hang up.”
The operator heard him.
“Ma’am, officers are on the way.”
I kept my eyes on Daniel.
“No.”
His expression shifted from anger to panic.
“Rachel, this has gone far enough.”
I almost laughed.
Blood was dripping from my jaw onto the front of my blouse, and he was telling me things had gone far enough.
Patricia rushed around the table.
“This was an accident.”
I looked at her.
“You just said it happened because I forgot my place.”
Her mouth opened.
Several relatives looked down.
The operator asked me whether anyone else was injured.
“No.”
“Is the weapon still in his hand?”
Daniel looked down at the jagged piece of ceramic he was still gripping.
For the first time, he seemed to realize what he was holding.
He dropped it.
It struck the hardwood floor.
I heard Patricia whisper, “You idiot.”
The operator heard that too.
So did everyone else.
Then came the sirens.
They grew louder until red and blue lights flashed across the windows of the apartment.
Daniel stepped toward me again.
“Tell them we argued.”
I said nothing.
“Rachel.”
His voice dropped.
“You don't want to destroy our marriage over one mistake.”
I stared at him.
“You hit me with a plate.”
His cousin Michael suddenly pushed his chair away from the table.
“I didn't see anything.”
The statement was so absurd that several people turned toward him.
Daniel's sister, Claire, immediately joined in.
“Neither did I.”
Patricia snapped her fingers toward the others.
“No one saw anything clearly.”
That was when I understood what they were doing.
They were organizing their story before the police even reached the door.
I raised my voice.
“Operator, several witnesses are now discussing what they plan to tell the police.”
Every face in the room changed.
Patricia lunged toward my phone.
I stepped away.
“Don't touch me.”
Heavy pounding sounded from the front door.
“Arlington County Police.”
No one moved.
The pounding came again.
“Police.”
I walked toward the door myself.
Daniel grabbed my wrist.
It lasted less than a second.
But it was long enough.
His uncle Frank stood.
“Daniel, let her go.”
Daniel released me.
I opened the door.
Two officers stood outside with a third behind them.
The first officer's expression changed when he saw the blood.
“Ma’am, step toward us.”
I did.
The second officer immediately entered the apartment.
“Sir, keep your hands where I can see them.”
Daniel froze.
Patricia began talking at once.
“Officer, this is a misunderstanding.”
The first officer looked past me at the shattered ceramic scattered across the floor.
Then he looked at the twenty people around the table.
“I'll decide what this is after we talk to everyone separately.”
That sentence terrified them more than the sirens had.
The paramedics arrived moments later.
One of them pressed gauze against my head while another checked my pupils.
Behind them, the officers separated Daniel from the rest of the family.
Patricia tried following him.
An officer blocked her.
“You'll stay here.”
“But I'm his mother.”
“That doesn't change my instruction.”
I watched Daniel being led toward the hallway.
He turned once.
There was no apology in his expression.
Only disbelief.
He had expected me to protect him.
He had expected embarrassment to keep me quiet.
He had expected twenty relatives to become a wall around him.
Instead, the wall was beginning to crack.
And the first crack came from the least likely person in the room.
Daniel's seventeen-year-old niece, Lily, raised a trembling hand.
“Officer?”
The detective beside her turned.
Lily swallowed.
“I saw everything.”
The room became completely silent again.
May you like
But this time, they weren't waiting to see what I would do.
They were waiting to see who would betray them next.
