Part 2 Attorney Morales met me at a 24-hour diner at 2 a.m.

Part 2

Attorney Morales met me at a 24-hour diner at 2 a.m. I gave him everything: the voicemail my mother left begging me to take the blame, the gas station footage showing Diego and Lucia getting into my car drunk, the witness who saw them switch seats, and the bar receipt with their names and times.

“You kept all this?” he asked, eyes wide.

“I kept it because I was scared,” I said. “Now I’m keeping it because I’m done being their shield.”

By sunrise, the DA’s office was reopening the case. By noon, police were at the family house with warrants.

Part 3

My phone rang while I was buying new clothes with the little money I had left.

It was my mother, crying. “Isabela, what did you do? The police took Diego! Lucia is hysterical!”

I stayed calm. “I told the truth, Mom. The truth you begged me to bury.”

Diego was arrested for hit-and-run, DUI, and leaving the scene. Lucia was charged as an accessory. The house transfer they rushed through was frozen — it was still legally half mine from our parents’ original deed.

That night, my father called. “Please, mija. We’re family. Drop this.”

“Family?” I laughed bitterly. “You sprayed me with alcohol and threw me out with $200. That’s not family. That’s what you do to trash.”

Part 4