Chapter 15 - The Fallen Grace
My mother’s pristine facade completely shattered in front of the entire neighborhood.
“Get your hands off me!” she shrieked, thrashing against the officer’s grip as hand cuffs clicked tightly around her wrists. “Do you know who I am?! I have taught at the middle school for twenty years! I am a respected member of this community!”
Neighbors gathered along the sidewalk, pulling out their phones, filming the woman who brought lemon bars to church fundraisers being forced into the back of a police cruiser in handcuffs.
Officer Torres pulled Jessica out of the other side of the vehicle, clicking a second pair of cuffs around her wrists.
“Mom! Do something!” Jessica sobbed wildly, her designer mascara running down her face in black streaks. “Tell them it was an accident! Tell them she set the fire!”
“Shut up, Jessica!” my mother roared, her face contorted in pure, unadulterated rage.
She turned her head toward the ambulance, locking her eyes onto mine as I sat wrapped in the yellow blanket.
“You ungrateful little bitch!” my mother screamed at the top of her lungs, her voice echoing down Bennett Street. “After everything I gave you! After everything I protected you from!”
I looked at her from the back of the ambulance.
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I didn't yell back. I didn't cry.
I simply raised my chin and watched her get shoved into the back of the squad car, the door slamming shut, cutting off her voice forever.
