Chapter 1 - The Golden Boy’s Free Ride
My father adjusted his posture, resting his elbows on the polished mahogany dining table in Aunt Lorraine’s suburban home. He wore the practiced expression of an aggrieved patriarch who had mastered the art of selective memory. His gaze narrowed at me, calculating and entirely devoid of remorse.
""Hannah,"" he began, adopting the deliberate cadence he always used whenever he prepared to explain why my feelings were an inconvenience to the family unit. ""You need to think about what you’re doing here. A police report? An insurance claim? That is an actual crime record you are threatening to put on your own brother’s shoulders. Derek has children. He has Chloe and Liam depending on him. Do you understand what an arrest record would do to his chances of getting another loan or finding a decent job?""
""I understand that he stole my property,"" I said, my knuckles white against the edge of the dining cloth. ""And I understand that he did it with a spare key Mom took from my apartment without my consent. You both planned it while I was working a twelve-hour shift in the pediatric ICU. You knew I was on my feet caring for sick kids, and you used that exact window of time to walk into my parking lot and drive away.""
""Nobody stole anything!"" my mother snapped, slamming both palms down hard enough to make the crystal stemware rattle. Her cheeks burned an ugly, blotchy crimson. ""Families share! When Derek’s transmission blew, he had no way to take the kids to daycare. He had client meetings scheduled! What were we supposed to do? Let your brother drown while you hoard a luxury vehicle just to drive back and forth to a hospital that has bus stops right out front?""
""It’s not a luxury vehicle, Mom,"" I said, my voice steadying under the weight of my own indignation. ""It’s a reliable silver crossover that Aunt Lorraine bought for me with her own hard-earned money because she saw me walking through freezing rain at midnight after sixteen-hour shifts. It is registered solely to Hannah Brooks. It is titled to Hannah Brooks. Derek is an adult who has squandered two inheritances, crashed three cars, and abandoned two businesses because you keep catching him every single time he jumps off a cliff.""
Aunt Lorraine remained standing, towering at the head of the table like a judge delivering an impending sentence. She held up her phone, the screen glowing brightly with the countdown timer she had just initiated. ""You have twenty-four minutes left, Evelyn. And Richard, close your mouth before you dig this hole any deeper. If Derek does not pull into my driveway before that clock strikes zero, the detective handling Hannah’s unauthorized vehicle report will receive a direct text with the exact address of where Derek has been parking it every night. I know he’s staying over at your house off Elm Street because I saw it sitting in your driveway yesterday afternoon.""
My mother froze, her jaw slackening. ""You... you spied on us?""
""I keep tabs on thieves,"" Aunt Lorraine replied without blinking. ""Especially the ones who steal from a daughter who pays her own rent, covers her own health insurance, and has spent the last decade cleaning up your mess without ever asking for a single penny.""
The dining room fell into an suffocating quiet. Across the table, my cousin Marcus and his wife Sarah exchanged wide-eyed glances, neither daring to reach for their wine glasses. For twenty-nine years, our family gatherings had followed an unwritten script: Derek would show up late, boast about his latest doomed entrepreneurial venture, ask Dad for rent money, and Mom would turn to me to pick up the tab or hand over whatever resources I had left over. I had been the designated shock absorber for Derek's reckless life.
My phone suddenly buzzed violently against the wood. The caller ID flashed Derek’s name.
Aunt Lorraine tapped the screen on her phone, hit speaker, and laid it dead center on the table. ""You're on speaker with the whole family, Derek. Tell me you're turning onto my street.""
May you like
""Aunt Lorraine, listen to me for one second!"" Derek’s whiny, agitated voice spilled through the speakers, loud and breathless over the hum of the crossover’s engine. ""Mom told me Hannah said it was fine! Mom literally handed me the key and said Hannah was working overtime all month anyway! Why are you threatening to call the cops on me? I have Chloe in the backseat right now! Are you really going to traumatize your grandniece over a set of wheels?""
""Derek,"" I interrupted, leaning directly toward the speaker. ""You have twenty minutes. If that car is not parked outside this house right now, I am pressing full charges for grand theft auto, and I don't care who gets upset about it.""
