"That's insane."
"I know," I said. "But I have a plan."
That night, I sat at Tamika's office with Ray and a woman with dark hair and a badge clipped to her belt, who introduced herself as Detective Angela Ruiz.
"We can arrest them tonight," Ruiz said, spreading out my photographs. "We have the video. We have the lab work. We have the forged mortgage. We have the pre-signed doctor's letter."
"Not tonight," I said.
"Nora." Ruiz's brown eyes were sharp. "Why not?"
I took a breath.
"Because they built this entire plan on the family believing I was sick. Derek's brother. Lorraine's sister. The church ladies. Eli's teacher. Every one of them has been told for three weeks that I am confused and dangerous." I looked around the table. "If you arrest Derek at midnight, they'll spend the next five years wondering if he was really guilty or if the system just took his side. Somebody will always whisper that I must have imagined it. That I was sick."
"So?"
"So I want them in the room. All of them. I want them to see it with their own eyes." My voice was very steady. "I want Eli to grow up in a world where nobody can say his mother made it up."
Nobody spoke.
Then Ruiz sat back and studied me for a long moment.
"It's risky," she said.
"I know."
"If it goes sideways, I won't be able to stop it fast."
"You'll be outside," I said. "Ray will be at the table. Marisol will have Eli. And I'll have every piece of paper in this room."
Ruiz looked at Ray. Ray looked at me, and his mouth twitched.
"She's Frank's kid," he said. "You're not gonna talk her out of it."
"No," Ruiz agreed, and sighed. "I guess not."
Tamika tapped her pen on the table. "Legally, you don't have to do this," she said. "But I understand."
I looked down at the photograph on the top of the pile: a woman, sleeping on a couch at 3:12 in the morning. Somebody's wife. Somebody's mother.
"Saturday," I said. "Derek's birthday dinner. Let them set the stage. I'll bring the truth."