Chapter 2 - THE FIRST PERSON WHO TOLD THE TRUTH
Lily's mother grabbed her arm.
“You don't know what you saw.”
The officer immediately stepped between them.
“Ma’am, take your hand off her.”
Claire released her daughter.
Lily's face had gone pale.
She looked at me, then at Daniel, then at her grandmother.
“I saw Uncle Daniel pick up the plate.”
Claire shook her head violently.
“Lily.”
“He hit Aunt Rachel with it.”
Patricia snapped, “Stop talking.”
The officer turned toward her.
“Ma’am, another interruption and you're going to wait in the hallway.”
For once, Patricia obeyed.
The paramedic guided me toward a chair near the entryway.
I could barely feel the gauze being held against my scalp because adrenaline had made my entire body strangely numb.
Lily continued.
“She didn't touch him.”
“Did she threaten him?”
“No.”
“Did she throw anything?”
“No.”
“Did he say anything before he hit her?”
Lily looked toward me.
Then she whispered, “He said she always embarrassed him.”
The officer wrote something down.
Claire started crying.
Not for me.
For Daniel.
“This is going to ruin him.”
I finally looked at her.
“Your brother hit me hard enough to split my head open, and you're worried about what this will do to him?”
Claire said nothing.
The paramedics decided I needed to be taken to the emergency room.
Before they moved me, an officer asked whether I wanted to make a formal statement immediately or wait until I had received treatment.
“I'll make one now.”
Daniel was standing near the kitchen under the supervision of another officer.
When he heard that, his head snapped toward me.
“Rachel.”
The officer beside him warned him not to speak to me.
I described the dinner.
I described Patricia announcing that she would take my primary bedroom.
I described Daniel insisting the apartment belonged to him too.
I described refusing.
Then I described the plate.
The officer photographed my injury.
He photographed the blood on my blouse.
He photographed the ceramic fragments.
He photographed Daniel's hand.
One piece of the broken plate had cut his palm when it shattered.
The officer placed several fragments into evidence bags.
Then he asked who owned the apartment.
“I do.”
Daniel called from across the room.
“We're married.”
The officer looked at him.
“That wasn't my question.”
I explained that I had purchased the apartment three years before meeting Daniel.
The deed was solely in my name.
Daniel had moved in after our wedding.
Patricia suddenly spoke.
“She promised that property would stay in the family.”
I stared at her.
“I never promised you anything.”
Patricia realized her mistake.
Too late.
The officer wrote down her statement.
Then Lily raised her hand again.
“There was paperwork.”
Patricia turned toward her granddaughter so fast that her chair scraped the floor.
“What paperwork?”
Lily looked frightened.
But she kept talking.
“Grandma had a folder before dinner.”
My heartbeat changed.
“What folder?”
Lily pointed toward the sideboard.
“She put it in the bottom drawer when Aunt Rachel went into the kitchen.”
Patricia was already moving.
The officer stopped her.
“Stay where you are.”
Another officer crossed the dining room.
He opened the drawer.
Inside was a thick blue folder.
He did not remove the papers immediately.
Instead, he looked toward Patricia.
“Does this belong to you?”
She said nothing.
The officer pulled on gloves.
He opened the folder.
His expression changed.
I couldn't see the first document clearly from where I sat.
Then he turned it slightly.
Across the top were three words.
QUITCLAIM DEED PREPARATION.
My name appeared underneath.
So did the address of my apartment.
The paramedic beside me whispered, “Wow.”
I didn't understand yet.
But I knew one thing.
That dinner had never been about Patricia needing a place to sleep.
May you like
They hadn't come to ask me for my apartment.
They had come expecting me to sign it away.
