Maya
The screen flickered, colours blurring together as the words at the bottom of the news broadcast sharpened into something cold and final.
BREAKING NEWS: RUSSELL PATEL CHARGED WITH FIRST-DEGREE MURDER.
Slack-jawed and eyes bulging, I press the volume button on the remote I am holding, my body stuck in a halfway sit and stand. A slow, looping clip played over and over- a police car rolling up to the station, the door swinging open, and then him. Handcuffed. Head bent. A shadow of the man I once called ‘Dad.’
The world around me dulled to static, and I straightened back to an erect position. The raised volume of the television, the distant chatter of traffic outside, even my own breathing, all of it faded into the background, leaving only the image of him on repeat. I had known t
