Brooke pointed toward Mom.

“She gave us permission!”

Mom visibly flinched.

Dr. Bell immediately stepped between them.

“She won’t be answering questions until she has received a proper medical evaluation.”

Darren turned toward me.

“You planned this?”

“No.”

I held his gaze.

“You planned this.”

“I just came home.”

Something inside him finally snapped.

“She was useless!” he shouted. “She forgot everything! Somebody had to run this house!”

Mom made a small sound.

I looked at him.

“So you drugged her?”

Silence.

The sheriff’s expression changed instantly.

Darren realized too late what he had just admitted.

Brooke backed away.

“I had nothing to do with the medication.”

Darren spun toward her.

“Are you kidding me?”

And then they destroyed each other.

He blamed Brooke for the spending.

She blamed Darren for forging the signatures.

He shouted that Brooke had been the one making Mom clean.

Brooke screamed that Darren had promised I would never come home.