“This is insane.
We came here because we were worried about her, and now everyone is acting like Trevor is some kind of criminal.”
Officer Ramirez closed the folder.
“Mr.
Hale, step into the hallway with the other officers.”
“Am I under arrest?”
“At this moment, you are being detained while we investigate an assault and suspected identity fraud.”
Trevor looked at Nadia, expecting her to fix it.
She stared back at him, equally helpless.
One of the officers moved behind him.
Trevor pointed at me.
“She attacked me first.
Look at my hand.”
The scraped knuckles he had displayed so proudly now looked less like evidence of self-defense and more like a confession.
Officer Ramirez’s expression did not change.
“The video will help us determine that.”
That was the first time Trevor seemed to understand that the camera had recorded more than the blow.
It had recorded the papers already waiting for me.
It had recorded Nadia ordering me to sign.
It had recorded Trevor twisting my arm while I was on the floor.
It had recorded my father stepping between us and being shoved into the workbench.
It had recorded everything they had planned to deny.
Trevor’s shoulders lowered slightly.
Then he tried one final performance.
“Nadia,” he said, “tell them this was your idea.”
She stared at him.
The room went silent in a new way.
Until that moment, they had moved as a single force.
Nadia supplied the grievance, Trevor supplied the threat, and both of them shared the reward.
But pressure had found the seam between them.
“What?” she whispered.
“You filled out the forms,” he said.
“You told me she had agreed.”
Nadia’s face emptied.
“You signed her name.”
“You watched me do it.”
“I thought she gave you permission.”
Even through the pain, I understood what I was seeing.
Neither of them was trying to prove innocence anymore.
They were choosing who would drown first.
Officer Ramirez opened the door.
The two officers escorted Trevor into the hallway.
As he passed my bed, he looked at me with an expression stripped of every trace of charm.
“You just destroyed your sister’s life,” he said.
I looked at the sling holding my arm against my chest.
“No,” I answered.
“You did.”
The door closed behind him.
Nadia remained in the room for less than a minute.
She began by crying.
When no one comforted her, she became angry.
“I was desperate,” she said.
“We were going to lose the house.”
“You did not have the house,” Officer Ramirez replied.
“You were applying to buy it.”
