“This is Officer Hughes with the Lincoln Police Department,” he said. “I’m calling about an incident involving your parents, Wade and Susan Smith.”
My blood went cold.
“What kind of incident?” I managed.
“They were arrested last night for breaking and entering and destruction of property,” he said. “The homeowner wants to press charges.”
For a second, my brain refused to process the words.
“Breaking and entering where?” I asked.
There was a pause, like he was checking his notes.
“The address they broke into is listed as your former residence,” he said. “Is 847 Maple Street a house you used to own?”
My stomach dropped.
“I sold that house,” I said. “A month ago.”
Another pause, heavier this time.
“Then they didn’t know,” Officer Hughes said quietly. “That would explain… a few things.”
“What were they doing there?” I asked, voice rising.
“That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” he said. “They caused significant damage to the interior of the home. Destroyed furniture, broke windows, spray-painted obscenities on the walls. The new owner came home to find them in his living room, smashing a coffee table with a baseball bat.”
I sank onto Julian’s couch, legs suddenly useless.
“You’re serious,” I whispered.
“Very,” Officer Hughes said. “The damage is estimated at around forty thousand dollars. Your parents claimed they believed it was still your house and that you’d wronged them.”
I closed my eyes. My heart was pounding so hard it made my ears ring.
“They said they were getting back at you,” he continued. “For abandoning your family.”
A laugh bubbled up—thin, shocked, not funny at all. “They abandoned me,” I said, but my voice sounded distant even to myself. Like the words belonged to someone else.
Officer Hughes asked for context, and I gave it. The five-year cutoff. Clara’s debts. The demands to sell my home. The private investigator. The uninvited visit. I told him everything, each sentence feeling like I was laying out evidence not just for the police, but for myself. Proof I hadn’t imagined the madness.
When I finished, he exhaled slowly.
“So they didn’t know you’d sold the house,” he said.
“No,” I said. “They probably went there to vandalize my property. Instead they destroyed some innocent person’s home.”