The second I heard that gunshot, my folks
froze. They just stared at each other, like
somebody had drained all the blood out of their faces. Their eyes were bugging out of their heads.
“Did you…did you hear a gunshot?” Dad asked Mom, his voice shaking so bad he could barely get the words out.
Mom’s lips were trembling. “Yeah…yeah, it sounded like a gunshot.”
“Oh, crap! Oh, crap, oh, crap! Sarah’s in trouble!” They both started yelling at the
Join the bookshelf
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same time. Dad started punching numbers
into his phone to call those kidnappers again,
but it went straight to voicemail.
They completely lost it.
“We gotta call the cops!”
When the cops arrived, Dad was just standing there, staring at his phone, totally out of it.
After he gave the cops a statement, Tiffany finally showed up.
The first thing she did wasn’t ask if my folks were okay. She was furious, “What took you guys so long? You had me scared half to
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death for a freakin‘ half hour!”
Normally, when Tiffany threw a hissy fit, my
folks would be all over her, trying to kiss the
boo–boo. But this time, they just stood there.
Then Dad’s eyes locked on to Tiffany, and she took a step back.
Just then, Dave, my boyfriend, led the cops over to Tiffany. He could barely talk through his sobs.
“She’s the one who planned this! I heard her say to Sarah that she wanted to see who
Mom and Dad loved more!”
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The phone slipped out of Dad’s hand and
clattered to the floor.
He charged at Tiffany, grabbed her arm, and
his eyes were burning into her. “Is that true?
Did you set this up?”
Tiffany had never seen Dad like this. She
started crying, trying to pull the pity card. It
was her go to when she wanted to distract
from wrong doing.
“Daddy, you’re scaring me! I’m your baby girl,
remember?”
But it didn’t work.
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Dad shoved her down. “I asked you a
question! Did you plan this?”
Tiffany nodded and shook her head at the
same time.
“Daddy, you used to be a great Dad, have you
forgotten that you and Mom love me?”
Mom wiped her eyes and slapped Tiffany.
“Used to be? That’s because Sarah was still
around. Now that Sarah’s in danger, you’re
worthless!”
Dad kicked Tiffany. If the cops hadn’t
grabbed him, he would have kept kicking her.
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The dude was out for blood.
Tiffany got scared and hid behind the cops.
The cops looked at this dysfunctional family,
then calmly turned to Tiffany and started
asking her about the kidnapping.
Tiffany caved and gave them the details, but
tried to make it sound like she didn’t really
mean for things to go that far.
“The black dudes weren’t even my call, trust
me!” she said.
She called some friends to back her up, but
the cops weren’t buying it.
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“Do you remember anything about where you
were being held? Anything at all?”
Tiffany thought for a minute, but Dad couldn’t
wait anymore.
“Think! If you are lying, I’m going to kill you!”
Tiffany, shook to her core, gave them what
she could. Mom sat there, sobbing and
crying, “I have to find Sarah!”
“Where are you, Sarah! We made some bad
choices, but we are desperate to fix this!
“We were just trying to stay true to what the
fortune teller said, and we ended up hurting
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you even more!”
Dave was fuming as he pointed to Mom.
“It’s her fault. This woman is evil; it was all
her fault!” The cops were getting confused at
this point.
Dave went on, “She called me and tried to
talk me into leaving Sarah, said I should go
out with her other daughter.”
“She went on and on about how rich they
were and how I should marry Tiffany to get
taken care of for life.”
“After I turned her down, she tricked me into
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going to that club. Tiffany’s friends grabbed
me and started pouring liquor down my
throat.”
He glared at the family. “If it wasn’t for that,
Sarah would have never been kidnapped!”
“Sarah was so selfless, she cared about her
family. This woman was wise beyond her
years, working two jobs just to make sure her
parents were ok. She did that to make sure
there wasn’t too much load on her parents.
“She was so dedicated, wanting to get a
scholarship and work so that she could get a
better life! Instead of encouraging them,
these people are evil!
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“She can’t have even the smallest fun, as she
is constantly worrying about her parents, and
dealing with a nasty scar on her face!”
Dave broke down sobbing, unable to stand
anymore.
The other cops were pissed. The lead cop,
trying to keep it together, glared at my folks, then went back to questioning Tiffany.
“Officer, I remember it was an abandoned factory…”
The cops sent a team to check it out. But
they came back empty–handed.
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“Nobody there. Just a lot of blood.”
Mom fainted dead away.
Dad’s eyes went wide, like he was seeing a
ghost.
