The threats.

The humiliation.

The way she hid my mother’s medication.

The way she mocked her.

The way she forced her to eat alone.

The way she smiled sweetly whenever I came home.

By evening, Valerie was sitting in the back of a police car.

She looked at me through the window.

“You owe me!” she screamed.

“I loved you!”

I stared at her.

“No,” I said quietly. “You loved what I could give you.”

The car drove away.

I thought the nightmare was over.

I was wrong.

The next morning, I received a call from an investigator.

“Mr. Robles, we’d like you to come down to the station.”

“What happened?”

part2