Chapter 4 - The Welcome They Got
Ten minutes later, two police cruisers pulled up to the curb, lights flashing. The neighborhood was dead quiet, which made their arrival feel enormous. Neighbors started peeking through blinds. I stepped out onto my front porch just as the officers came up the driveway.
"What's going on here?" the older officer asked.
My mother rushed forward immediately, putting on her best damsel-in-distress performance. "Oh, thank goodness you're here, Officer! This is just a family misunderstanding. My daughter Jenna is having a bit of an episode and locking her sister out of her own home!"
"Is this your home, ma'am?" the officer asked Kayla directly.
"Yes — I mean, it's family property," Kayla stammered, going pale. "I'm moving my stuff in today."
The officer turned to me. "Ma'am, do you own this house?"
I handed him a clear plastic folder I'd already prepared — the certified copy of the deed, my North Carolina driver's license matching the name on it, and the printed invoice from the locksmith who'd changed the locks two days earlier.
"I'm the sole owner," I told him. "Nobody else is on the deed. I've told them multiple times, explicitly, that they don't have permission to be here. They broke my back gate to get onto the property, and I have doorbell footage of them trying to pick my front lock earlier this morning."
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I handed him my phone and played the video of Kayla and my mother trying to force their way in.
The officer's expression hardened. He turned to my family. "Alright. This is private property. You need to put everything back in that truck and leave immediately. Step foot on this lawn again, and you'll be arrested for criminal trespassing."
