The police station smelled like burnt coffee and desperation. I sat across from Detective Morris, my hands trembling in my lap while my parents stood behind my younger sister like bodyguards protecting royalty. Raven\u2019s mascara had run down her perfect cheekbones, creating dark rivers that somehow made her look even more beautiful in her devastation.My mother kept stroking her hair, whispering soothing words I\u2019d never heard directed at me. \u201cSomeone needs to take responsibility for this,\u201d Detective Morris said, his eyes moving between us. \u201cThe evidence puts one of you behind the wheel during the hit-and-run.Mrs. Patterson is in critical condition.\u201dMy father stepped forward, his face a mask I\u2019d seen countless times before\u2014the expression he wore when making business decisions, weighing costs and benefits with cold precision. \u201cOfficer, my daughters are both here to cooperate fully.We just need a moment to discuss this as a family.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They pulled me into a side room. The fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, casting everything in a sickly yellow glow. Raven collapsed into a chair, sobbing into her hands.Mom immediately went to her, cradling her like she was still five years old instead of twenty-three. Dad turned to me with an expression I can still see when I close my eyes. \u201cMorgan, we need you to tell them you were driving.\u201dThe words hit me like a physical blow.What? No. Raven was driving.I wasn\u2019t even in the car.\u201dYour sister has her whole life ahead of her,\u201d Mom said, not even looking at me. \u201cShe just got accepted to graduate school. She has James who wants to marry her.She\u2019s going to do something important with her life.\u201dThe implication hung in the air like poison gas. Unlike you, they didn\u2019t need to say. I\u2019d heard it my entire life in a thousand different ways.\u201cThis is insane. I wasn\u2019t there. The truth will come out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The police station smelled like burnt coffee and desperation. I sat across from Detective Morris, my hands trembling in my lap while my parents stood behind my… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"views":93,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47005"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47007,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47005\/revisions\/47007"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/47006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}