Chapter 11 - The Mother's Pleading
Despite the legal warnings, my mother made one desperate, reckless move. Two nights after the disastrous deposition, I was walking from my parking garage to my apartment lobby when a figure stepped out from the shadows of the security gate. It was Mom. Her hair was unkempt, and she was clutching her purse to her chest like a shield.
"Elena, stop!" she cried, rushing toward me. "Please, just give me five minutes! You're destroying this family!"
I didn't stop walking. I immediately pulled out my phone and dialed 911, putting it on speaker. "I have a protective order against Susan Vance, and she is currently trespassing at my residence—"
"Are you really calling the cops on your own mother?!" she screamed, her sad demeanor vanishing, replaced by the bitter tyrant I had known my entire life. "Chloe’s engagement is called off! Mark left her because his parents found out about the police report! Your father’s bank froze his retirement accounts because of your stupid fraud claims! We might lose the house, Elena! We have to pay lawyers we can't afford!"
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"You did this to yourselves," I said, pausing just inside the secure glass doors of my lobby, looking back at her. "You let Chloe throw boiling water in my face, and your first thought was how to steal seven thousand dollars from me while I was holding an ice pack to my burns. You aren't my family anymore. You're just thieves who got caught."
The sirens echoed in the distance. My mother turned and fled into the night before the patrol car rounded the corner, but the security cameras caught her face clearly. The next morning, her bail was set at $5,000 for violating a protective order. She had to spend twelve hours in a holding cell before my father could scrape together the cash to get her out.
