Justice For Juniper (Tatienne Richard) novel Chapter 107

Statements Part I

The officer who’d been at the crash site with them approached, “so sorry to keep you waiting. I have a room ready. The four of you can come in and write down your statement and we can get you on your way.”

“Daddy!” Denise’s voice screamed as Scotty walked out of the room shaking his head with a rage–filled expression on his face and his fists clenched tight at his thighs.

Juniper watched as the woman she remembered from the video of Denise being served chased him out of the room. The woman’s face was tear–stained and contorted as if she was struggling not to break down.

Juniper immediately felt terrible for the pair of them and bit her lip as the woman approached Phineas.

“Haven,” Phineas took a breath.

“I’m so fucking sorry, Phineas.” Haven shook her head. “She’s off her rocker. I thought we could talk sense into her, especially in light of this,” she waved around her, “but the girl is convinced she is owed for being born or some other bullshit.”

“I’ve cut her off,” Scotty said seriously. “I’m not funding her lawyer.” He looked at Gonzalo. “I mean it, Gonzo. Do not help her this time. She needs a hard lesson. This isn’t like the time she was busted for underaged drinking or the time she got caught shoplifting when she was fifteen. This was intentional and deliberate. She didn’t want to hurt anyone, according to her, but she knew there was a risk of it happening if she stopped your vehicle using hers.”

“This was all to make you talk to her. She’s convinced you’ll give her a larger payout if you hear her reasons for being a shitty human being.”

“What are her reasons?”

“She didn’t tell us,” Haven shrugged. “Not that it matters. She was given a trust fund when she was twenty–one from her grandfather of a million dollars. Whatever she did with it, is beyond me. I had no idea it was completely gone until a couple of weeks ago when she came to us to ask us for money to get her car fixed. How the fuck she blew through a million dollars in under ten years with nothing to show for it boggles my mind.”

“We need to give our statements,” Beni waved to the waiting officer.

Haven nodded and then looked at Juniper, “you must be Juniper. I’m sorry she used you and your marriage in whatever nefarious plot she had going on.”

“Are you kidding? I kind of owe her because without her sleeping with him,” she shot an angry glance at Kyst, “I might not have known about all the other cheating. He’s been cheating on me for years and I was too stupid to notice.”

“That poor woman,” Juniper wiped a tear off her cheek. Before anyone could stop her, including the room full of officers Juniper crossed the room to the door of the interview room where Denise sat. “Do you see that? Do you see what you’ve done, Denise? Your mother is heartbroken over your bullshit. You broke your mama’s heart. You selfish, miserable twat. You broke her heart with your greed and your entitled bullshit. Your mom walked out of here in tears. Are you proud of yourself? Are you?”

“Shut up. You don’t get to say you just wanted money.” Juniper’s finger pointed and waving at Denise. “You are a morally bankrupt fool. You sleep with other women’s husbands. You berate people who you feel are less than you. You use people for their money. You should be ashamed of yourself. All you’ve done is embarrassed and humiliated the two people who love you unconditionally.”

“They don’t love me! They left me here!”

“They do love you, you fucking idiot. It’s why they left you here. You need to grow up. You’re thirty–one years old but acting like you’re fifteen. They’re making you stand up on your own two feet. Your mother is falling apart because she has to leave you here in a police station to face the consequences of your actions because she knows it’s the only fucking way you will get it. You need to think and think hard Denise. Is all of this,” she waved around, “worth losing the only two people who actually like you as a human being?”

“Juniper,” Beni pulled her backwards. “Come on, Sunshine. We need to give our statements so we can go home.”

“Why does everyone like her but hate me?”

Beni sighed and looked at Denise, “because of this.” He waved between the two women. “Because she is the kind of person who wants to make a difference in the world and for the better. She feels your mother’s broken heart as if it were her own. She saw how her mother is hurting and immediately wanted to make it better. Her heart, Denise, her good, pure, sweet heart, is why we love her. If you were even an eighth of the person she is, maybe you might have a single friend to call today to help you. Instead, you’ve made it so your own parents can’t be in the same room with you without hurting. Do better.”