PART 3
He was coming back.
I held my breath.
Then—
Sirens.
They were faint at first.
But they grew louder.
Derek froze.
I could hear them too.
He stood in the hallway for several seconds without moving.
Then his phone rang.
He answered immediately.
“Hello?”
I couldn’t hear the voice on the other end, but Derek’s expression changed.
His shoulders tightened.
“What?”
Another pause.
“No. That’s impossible.”
He began pacing.
“You said she wouldn’t know.”
My stomach twisted.
She?
Who was he talking about?
Then he lowered his voice.
“Listen to me. Get rid of everything. Right now.”
My eyes widened.
Everything?
What else had he planted?
The sirens stopped outside our building.
A car door slammed.
Then another.
Voices echoed from the hallway outside our apartment.
“Police department! Open the door!”
Derek looked toward the front entrance.
For one brief moment, I thought he might actually surrender.
Instead, he ran toward the kitchen.
I heard a cabinet open.
Something metallic clattered.
Then Mom’s voice exploded from outside the apartment.
“Derek!”
He froze.
I had never heard my mother’s voice like that before.
It wasn’t frightened.
It wasn’t confused.
It was furious.
“Derek, step away from the kitchen and put your hands where I can see them!”
The apartment door had apparently been opened by the police.
Heavy footsteps rushed inside.
“Sir, step away from the counter!”
Derek shouted.
“You don’t understand! This is all a misunderstanding!”
“Hands where we can see them!”
“I didn’t do anything!”
“Get on your knees!”
There was a crash.
Something hit the floor.
Then a police officer yelled:
“Don’t move!”
I squeezed my eyes shut.
I wanted to come out.
I wanted to run to Mom.
But I remembered her warning.
Stay where you are.
Don’t open the door.
So I stayed.
A few seconds later, someone knocked gently on my bedroom door.
“Chloe?”
It was Mom.
“It’s me.”
I crawled out from under the bed.
My legs were shaking so badly that I nearly fell.
Mom opened the door and immediately pulled me into her arms.
She smelled like coffee, winter air, and the pharmacy where she worked.
I buried my face against her coat.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
She pulled back.
“For what?”
“I shouldn’t have lied about being sick.”
Mom stared at me for a second.
Then she hugged me again.
“We’ll talk about the school lie later.”
Her voice broke.
“Right now, I’m just grateful you’re safe.”
Behind her stood two police officers.
One was a woman in her forties with a notebook in her hand. The other was a tall man standing near the hallway.
The female officer crouched down to my level.
“I’m Detective Alvarez.”
I nodded.
“Your mom told us you recorded something.”
I looked at Mom.
She nodded.
“Show her.”
My fingers trembled as I opened my phone.
The video was still there.
I pressed play.
Derek appeared on the screen.
His boots.
His gloves.
Maya’s gray backpack.
The pill bottle.
His voice.
“Today, Miss Perfect goes down.”
The detective watched without saying anything.
When the video ended, she looked at me.
“Did you edit this?”
“No.”
“Did you add anything to it?”
“No.”
“Did you record it yourself?”
“Yes.”
“Where were you?”
“Under my bed.”
“Why?”
I swallowed.
“Because I was scared.”
Detective Alvarez nodded slowly.
“You did the right thing by staying hidden.”
I glanced toward the hallway.
“What happens to my sister?”
“That’s what we’re going to find out.”
Then one of the officers came over and quietly spoke to Detective Alvarez.
She listened.
Her expression became more serious.
“What did you find?”
The officer looked at Mom.
“We found another pill bottle.”
Mom’s face went pale.
“Where?”
“In the kitchen trash.”
Detective Alvarez looked at me.
“Does that bottle look like the one in your video?”
I shook my head.
“I don’t know.”
“That’s okay.”
She turned to the officer.
“Bag it.”
Then she looked at Mom.
“There’s something else you need to know.”
Mom stiffened.
“What?”
“We found a pharmacy receipt in the kitchen.”
Mom’s eyes narrowed.
“What kind of receipt?”
“A controlled-medication transaction from your workplace.”
My stomach dropped.
Derek had thought of everything.
Or almost everything.
Mom whispered, “That receipt shouldn’t be here.”
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t process that transaction.”
The detective studied her.
“Are you sure?”
“I’ve worked at that pharmacy for six years. I know the system. If someone used my employee credentials, I would have noticed.”
Detective Alvarez glanced at her notes.
“Apparently, the transaction was processed using your login.”
Mom’s face went completely white.
“I knew it.”
I looked at her.
“Knew what?”
Mom didn’t answer.
The detective did.
“Your mother has reason to believe someone has been using her credentials.”
I remembered something.
A tiny detail.
Something I’d seen several times but never considered important.
“Derek knew Mom’s password.”
Mom turned toward me.
“What?”
“He did.”
“When?”
“All the time.”
I thought harder.
“He used to ask you for it when you were working from home.”
Mom stared at the floor.
“He said he needed it to help me with the online bills.”
Detective Alvarez wrote something down.
“Did he ever have access to your work computer?”
Mom hesitated.
“Yes.”
“When?”
“About two months ago.”
“How long?”
“Maybe an hour.”
The detective exchanged a look with her partner.
“Mrs. Miller, we need to speak with you privately.”
My mother nodded.
Then she looked at me.
“Chloe, stay with the other officer.”
I watched her walk away.
For the first time that day, I realized something.
Derek hadn’t planned this in one morning.
He had been preparing it.
For weeks.
Maybe months.
And Maya wasn’t the real target.
Mom was.
AT ROOSEVELT HIGH SCHOOL
While police were questioning Derek at our apartment, Maya was sitting in the principal’s office.
She had been there for nearly an hour.
Her backpack sat on the floor beside the principal’s desk.
Two police officers had already searched it.
The pill bottle had been found exactly where Derek had placed it.
Maya kept repeating the same thing.
“I didn’t put that there.”
The principal, Mr. Harris, looked uncomfortable.
He wasn’t angry with her anymore.
He was confused.
At first, he’d believed the situation was straightforward.
A fifteen-year-old student.
A bottle of controlled pills.
A connection to a pharmacy.
A mother who worked there.
It looked suspicious.
But now something wasn’t adding up.
Maya’s teachers had all described her as responsible.
Her grades were excellent.
She had never been disciplined.
She had never even been caught cheating on a test.
Then Derek had arrived.
He’d told them that Maya had been stealing medication from her mother’s pharmacy.
He’d claimed she had been acting strangely for weeks.
He’d even suggested that Chloe might be involved.
But Derek’s story had started falling apart almost immediately.
Because the principal had checked the school’s security footage.
And something was wrong.
Maya hadn’t put the bottle in her backpack.
Someone else had.
At 8:03 that morning, Maya’s bag had been left beside the front office while she went to class.
The camera showed no one near it.
Except—
Derek.
He had entered the school building at 8:17.
He had told the receptionist he needed to drop off paperwork for Maya.
But instead of going to the office, he’d walked toward the student lockers.
The camera caught him carrying something small.
And now the police were requesting the footage.
Maya didn’t know any of this.
She only knew that her life had suddenly turned upside down.
Then her phone buzzed.
A message from Chloe.
Mom knows. Police are here. You’re going to be okay.
Maya stared at the screen.
Tears filled her eyes.
She typed:
Are you safe?
Chloe replied:
Yes.
Then another message came.
I love you.
Maya wiped her face.
For the first time since the pill bottle had been discovered, she smiled.
THE FIRST CRACK IN DEREK’S STORY
Back at the apartment, Detective Alvarez returned to the living room.
“Derek is being detained.”
Mom nodded.
“What did he say?”
“He says Chloe fabricated the video.”
I almost laughed.
“Of course he does.”
Mom looked at me.
The detective continued.
“He claims he was putting the backpack somewhere safe because he thought Maya was being bullied.”
“What?”
“That’s his story.”
I shook my head.
“He went into her room.”
“According to him, he was looking for evidence of bullying.”
“He was wearing gloves.”
The detective nodded.
“That’s difficult to explain.”
“And he said ‘Miss Perfect goes down.’”
Another nod.
“He says that was a joke.”
