Chapter 5 - I Want to Finish
Marcus arrived at the station just after sunset.
Kendra heard him before she saw him.
Not loud.
Marcus was too practiced for loud in public.
His voice moved through the hallway in injured disbelief.
“I didn’t abandon them. My sister agreed to take them.”
Then he saw her.
Through the glass.
For one second, his face hardened with hatred.
Then changed into pleading.
“Kenny.”
She hated that nickname now.
Elliot stood.
“Do not engage.”
Marcus lifted both hands as if harmless.
“Come on. Tell them. This got out of hand.”
Kendra stayed seated.
Marcus leaned toward the glass.
“They’re my kids.”
Kendra finally looked at him.
“Yes.”
The word seemed to surprise him.
Maybe he expected denial.
Anger.
Argument.
She gave him fact.
He tried again.
“You know I’d never hurt them.”
“Mason thought he would get me in trouble by knocking on a neighbor’s door.”
Marcus’s face twitched.
“That’s not what I meant.”
“What did you mean?”
He looked away.
There.
The question he could not survive.
Officer Hale directed Marcus into another interview room.
Marcus’s gaze darted to Viola.
“Mom.”
Viola stood.
Kendra watched her mother almost move toward him.
Almost.
Then stop.
A small thing.
Huge.
Marcus saw the hesitation.
His face shifted.
Betrayal.
Panic.
Confusion.
For the first time, Viola did not rush to rescue him before he finished falling.
Otis, from another room, shouted something muffled and furious.
An officer closed the door.
The station swallowed the sound.
Kendra felt exhausted suddenly.
The kind of exhaustion that follows survival, not sleep.
Elliot asked, “Do you want to leave?”
She looked at the written statement.
The phone.
The officers.
Her mother.
Her father behind a closed door.
Her brother in another.
“I want to finish.”
So she did.
Tessa arrived an hour later.
She was thirty-six, pale, hair pulled into a messy knot, coat thrown over work scrubs.
Kendra saw her through the lobby glass.
Tessa’s first question was not about Marcus.
It was, “Where are they?”
The officer took her to Mason and Ruby.
Kendra watched from the hallway as Tessa dropped to her knees and pulled both children into her arms.
Ruby sobbed.
Mason tried not to.
Then failed.
Kendra turned away because witnessing love can hurt when your family taught you duty instead.
Tessa saw her before leaving.
Their eyes met.
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then Tessa walked toward her.
Elliot shifted, but Kendra raised a hand.
It was okay.
Tessa stopped several feet away.
“I heard you gave them the messages.”
Kendra nodded.
“I should have listened to you before.”
Tessa’s eyes filled, but her voice remained steady.
“Yes.”
Kendra accepted it.
No defense.
No “I didn’t know.”
No “I was trying.”
Tessa deserved the clean word.
Kendra said, “I’m sorry.”
Tessa looked toward the children.
Then back.
“Thank you for telling the truth today.”
The two sentences did not cancel each other.
They stood side by side.
That was more honest than forgiveness.
After Tessa left with the children, Viola approached Kendra.
She looked ten years older.
“Kendra.”
Elliot remained nearby.
Good.
Kendra wanted him there.
Viola noticed.
Pain crossed her face.
She had earned that.
“I didn’t know about the hallway,” Viola said.
Kendra stared.
“Mom.”
Viola swallowed.
“I knew he was dropping them with you. I thought he called.”
Kendra’s chest tightened.
“You knew?”
“He said you were being difficult about it, but he said you knew.”
“Did you ask me?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Viola’s lips trembled.
“Because I needed it to be true.”
There it was.
The most honest thing Viola had said all day.
Not enough.
But real.
Kendra’s voice softened.
“You needed me to be responsible so Marcus wouldn’t be.”
Viola cried silently.
“Yes.”
Kendra looked down at her scratched arm.
“I can’t be that anymore.”
Viola nodded.
“I know.”
“No,” Kendra said. “You’re hearing it. That’s not the same as knowing it.”
Her mother flinched.
Kendra continued.
“I am not taking his calls. I am not paying his rent. I am not writing letters to judges. I am not explaining him to employers, landlords, girlfriends, ex-wives, police, or children.”
Viola covered her mouth.
“And if Dad touches me again, I will report it.”
Viola’s eyes widened.
“He’s your father.”
Kendra’s expression did not move.
“That is why he should have known better.”
The statement landed.
Viola nodded once.
Then again.
Small, shaken nods.
Maybe understanding.
Maybe fear.
Kendra was too tired to measure.
Elliot walked her to the parking lot after the final paperwork.
Cool evening air hit her face.
For a moment, she stood under the station lights and did not move.
Her car was still in the lot.
The same place Otis had grabbed her arm when she refused to change her statement.
“You don’t get to walk in there and ruin your brother.”
The scratch burned when she remembered.
Elliot asked, “Do you want someone to drive you?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
She looked at her hands.
Still shaking.
“No. But I want to drive myself.”
He nodded.
“Text me when you get home.”
She almost smiled.
“Attorney instruction?”
“Human one.”
May you like
She nodded.
“I will.”
