Chapter 8 - The Price of the Stolen Tuition
Derek didn't resist as the cold steel handcuffs clicked tightly around his wrists.
He slumped against the hood of the patrol cruiser, sobbing openly like a terrified teenager whose fortress of lies had collapsed.
"Evelyn... please," Derek wept, looking at me with swollen, desperate eyes.
"Tell them to drop it! I have two little boys! We have nowhere to sleep tonight! If I get a felony on my record, I lose my catering permit!"
I walked down the steps until I was standing inches from my weeping brother.
"Ten years ago, Derek, I sat on the floor of our father's living room with my university acceptance letter in my hand."
"I begged you not to take Dad's college trust fund, telling you it was my only ticket out of poverty."
"Do you remember what you said to me while you pocketed that check?" I asked, keeping my gaze locked onto his.
Derek swallowed hard, unable to find words as the memory returned to haunt him.
"You looked at me and said, 'Smart girls find a way to survive, Evelyn. But men have reputations to maintain.'"
"Well, Derek," I whispered, the cold autumn wind whipping my hair across my face, "I survived."
"And now you are going to learn what happens when a smart girl uses the law to balance the ledger."
Officer Ramirez guided Derek into the back of the patrol cruiser, closing the heavy door with a decisive, metallic slam.
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Brenda fell to her knees on the lawn, weeping into her palms while her children watched through the tinted windows of their minivan.
The two victims accompanied the second officer to file formal grand larceny complaints at the precinct station downtown.
