Chapter 7 - A Mother's Reckoning
The air in the police precinct lobby was stale, smelling of old coffee and bleach.
I sat on a wooden bench, finishing the final statement for the fraud investigator. When I stood up to leave, the double doors swung open, and my mother walked in.
Margaret looked like she had aged twenty years in three days. Her posture was stooped, her expensive clothes hung loosely on her frame, and her eyes were red and swollen from crying.
She saw me and froze.
For a long moment, the woman who had slapped me in front of two hundred people just stared at me. Then, her bottom lip began to tremble, and she slowly walked toward me.
“Elena,” she whispered, her voice cracking. “They… they denied her bail. They said the evidence is overwhelming. They said she could face twenty years.”
I didn't say anything. I just zipped up my purse and slung it over my shoulder.
“Elena, please,” Margaret sobbed, reaching out and grabbing my wrist. Her grip was weak, desperate. “I didn't know. I swear to God I didn't know she stole from your father. She told me she was successful. She told me you were the one struggling. I was just trying to protect our family’s image.”
I looked down at her hand on my wrist, and then up into her eyes.
“You didn't slap me for the family’s image, Mom,” I said, my voice eerily calm, void of any anger or warmth. “You slapped me because you have always preferred her. You slapped me because you watched her physically assault an eight-year-old child, and your first instinct was to check if Sarah’s shoe was okay.”
Margaret flinched as if I had struck her. “I… I was shocked. I wasn't thinking straight. I’m your mother, Elena. You have to forgive me. I have nothing left. No home. No husband. No money. I need you.”
I gently, but firmly, pried her fingers off my wrist.
“You made your choice in that ballroom, Margaret,” I said, using her first name. “When you looked at Mia crying on the floor and told us to get out, you severed the last string holding us together.”
“I’m sorry!” she wailed, tears streaming down her wrinkled cheeks. “I’ll apologize to Mia! I’ll do anything!”
“No, you won't,” I said softly. “Because you will never be allowed near my daughter again. You chose a monster over us. Now, you get to live with the consequences.”
I turned and walked toward the glass exit doors.
“Elena!” she screamed, her voice echoing through the sterile lobby. “You can't just leave me here! I have nowhere to go! Elena!”
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I walked out into the bright afternoon sunlight. I didn't stop. I didn't look back. The sound of her crying faded behind the heavy doors, buried in the past where she belonged.
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