The detective nodded.
“Answer it. Put it on speaker.”
I did.
“Jacqueline, please,” Mom cried. “The bank is threatening to press charges against your father. They’re saying it’s loan fraud. You have to help us.”
“I can’t, Mom. Not anymore.”
“But we’re family. After everything we’ve done for you—”
I laughed, hollow and sharp.
“You mean after everything you’ve done to me?”
Detective Victoria stepped in.
“Mrs. Matau, this is Detective Victoria from the Financial Crimes Unit. I strongly suggest you stop speaking and call a lawyer.”
The line went dead.
The detective gathered the papers into neat stacks.
“With this much documentation, we should have warrants moving quickly.”
My stomach twisted.
“They’re really going to be arrested.”
Justin looked at me gently.
“This is felony-level fraud, Jacqueline. What did you think would happen?”
Before I could answer, my phone lit up with messages from Lauren.
What did you do?
The police are calling Mom and Dad.
I can’t believe you’d betray us like this.
You’re dead to me.
Then came a photo of us as kids.
Me helping her with homework.
Both of us smiling.
Underneath it she wrote: Remember when you were actually a good sister?
I showed the phone to Detective Victoria.
“This is what they do. They take and take, and when you finally stop them, they try to make you feel like the villain.”
She nodded.
“Would you also like to add harassment?”
“Yes,” I said, surprising myself with how certain I sounded. “Yes, I would.”
Justin squeezed my shoulder.
“You’re doing the right thing.”
“I know,” I said quietly. “I just wish it didn’t hurt this much.”
“Save every message from this point on,” Detective Victoria said, handing me her card. “Texts, calls, emails, all of it. They usually don’t stop until they’re made to stop.”
Outside the police station, the sun was coming up.
My phone buzzed one more time.
Dad.
The police are here. How could you do this to your own parents?
I typed back before I could second-guess myself.
The same way you did it to your daughter. One signature at a time.
Then I blocked all their numbers.
Justin was waiting by his car.
“Ready?”
I looked back at the police station. Detective Victoria was probably already preparing the paperwork.
Soon, my family would learn that karma doesn’t just knock.
Sometimes it shows up wearing a badge and carrying handcuffs.
“Yeah,” I said, getting into the car. “I’m ready.”
“They were arrested this morning,” Helen said the next day, dropping a local newspaper on my desk.
The headline read:
LOCAL FAMILY CHARGED IN IDENTITY THEFT CASE
I pushed the paper away.
“I don’t want to see it.”
