PART 3
My eyes filled with tears.
He knew exactly which buttons to push.
For years, Derek had acted like he was the adult who held our family together. He drove us to school when Mom worked early. He fixed broken cabinet doors. He cooked dinner sometimes.
But now I understood something.
He hadn’t been protecting our family.
He had been studying us.
Learning what scared us.
Learning what we loved.
Learning exactly where to hurt us.
I heard the doorknob turn again.
This time, it didn’t rattle.
It slowly rotated.
Locked.
Derek exhaled.
“Fine.”
His footsteps moved away.
I stayed frozen.
Then I heard him walk toward the living room.
A few seconds later, the front door opened.
I heard voices outside.
“Police! Step away from the door!”
Derek shouted something I couldn’t understand.
There was a crash.
Then another voice.
“Sir, put your hands where we can see them!”
I didn’t move.
I couldn’t.
I kept staring at the bottom of my bedroom door.
Then someone knocked.
Not pounding.
A gentle knock.
“Chloe?”
It was Mom.
My entire body finally relaxed.
I crawled out from under the bed and unlocked the door.
Mom was standing in the hallway with tears running down her cheeks.
She grabbed me so hard I could barely breathe.
“Oh, baby.”
“I told you,” I whispered.
“I know.”
She held my face between her hands.
“I know.”
Behind her stood two police officers.
And sitting on the floor against the living room wall, with his wrists handcuffed behind him, was Derek.
He looked nothing like the man who had been standing outside my door five minutes earlier.
His face was pale.
His hair was disheveled.
But his eyes were still fixed on me.
“You have no idea what you’ve done,” he said.
One of the officers immediately stepped between us.
“Don’t speak to her.”
Derek laughed bitterly.
“She thinks she’s saved her family.”
Mom pulled me closer.
The officer looked at Derek.
“Anything else you want to say can be said at the station.”
Derek lowered his head.
But before they took him away, he looked at Mom.
“You’ll regret believing her.”
Mom didn’t answer.
She simply held me tighter.
After the police left with Derek, our apartment became strangely quiet.
The same apartment that had always felt small suddenly felt enormous.
Mom sat on the couch.
I sat beside her.
Neither of us spoke for almost a minute.
Finally, she whispered:
“Show me exactly what you saw.”
I handed her my phone.
She watched the video again.
Her face changed as it played.
When Derek’s gloved hand placed the bottle inside Maya’s backpack, Mom covered her mouth.
When he said, “Today, Miss Perfect goes down,” tears rolled down her cheeks.
And when he mentioned the pharmacy, Mom paused the video.
“He knew exactly what he was doing.”
I nodded.
“He said the pills came from your work.”
Mom looked at me.
“Chloe…”
“What?”
“There is something you don’t know.”
She stared at the frozen image on the screen.
“The pills he planted aren’t from my pharmacy.”
I frowned.
“What?”
“I checked my inventory before my shift this morning.”
Her voice trembled.
“Nothing was missing.”
My stomach tightened.
“Then where did he get them?”
Mom didn’t answer.
Instead, she stood and walked to the kitchen.
She opened a drawer.
Inside was a small notebook.
She flipped through several pages.
Then she stopped.
“Two weeks ago, Derek asked me how controlled medications were tracked.”
I stared at her.
“Why?”
“I thought he was just being curious.”
Mom closed the notebook.
“I was wrong.”
That night, Mom called the school.
The principal told her Maya was still there.
So we drove straight to Roosevelt High.
The moment we entered the principal’s office, I saw my sister.
Maya was sitting in a chair with her arms folded tightly across her chest.
Her eyes were red.
The principal stood behind his desk.
A school security officer was nearby.
And sitting beside the principal was a woman I had never seen before.
She looked to be in her late forties.
Gray blazer.
Black glasses.
A leather folder resting on her lap.
When Mom walked in, she stood.
“Mrs. Carter?”
“Yes.”
“I’m Elaine Porter. I’m the district’s student safety coordinator.”
She glanced at me.
“And you must be Chloe.”
I nodded.
Maya jumped out of her chair.
“Chloe!”
She ran to me.
I hugged her.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
“For what?”
“I wasn’t there.”
Maya pulled away.
“You were the reason I’m not being arrested.”
The principal cleared his throat.
“Before we go any further, I think everyone needs to understand something.”
He looked uncomfortable.
“The bottle was found in Maya’s bag during a routine investigation.”
“Routine?” Mom asked sharply.
The principal hesitated.
“We received an anonymous report.”
“From whom?”
“We don’t know.”
I looked at Maya.
She looked at me.
Then I remembered Derek’s phone call that morning.
Call the principal.
Tell them to search her bag.
I spoke.
“It wasn’t anonymous.”
Everyone looked at me.
“Derek made the call.”
The district official opened her folder.
“That’s what we need to establish.”
She looked directly at me.
“Chloe, I watched the video your mother sent us.”
I blinked.
“You already saw it?”
“Yes.”
She leaned forward.
“I also noticed something you may not have.”
She turned her laptop around.
On the screen was a photograph.
It showed the pill bottle.
“Look at the label.”
I stared at it.
There was a tiny white sticker on the side.
Most of it had been scratched away.
But there were still a few characters visible.
“That’s not our pharmacy’s label,” Mom said immediately.
Elaine nodded.
“Correct.”
She opened another image.
“This is a legitimate bottle from the pharmacy where you work.”
The labels were completely different.
Mom stared at the photographs.
“So someone deliberately removed the original label.”
“Yes.”
Maya’s voice was quiet.
“Why?”
Elaine closed the folder.
“That’s what we’re trying to find out.”
The principal looked at Mom.
“We’re also concerned because the report specifically mentioned your employment at the pharmacy.”
Mom’s face went pale.
“So this was meant to make it look like I stole them.”
“Exactly.”
Nobody spoke.
Then Maya suddenly said:
“There was something weird this morning.”
I turned toward her.
“What?”
She frowned.
