Life After | Trilogy

8

Lauren

I stepped off of the plane and walked over to the car that was waiting for us. The kids piled in and Chris tossed our bags in the back.

I unlocked my phone and went to Riley's contact, placing a call.

"Hello?" She answered

"I need a favor."

"What?"

"Can you watch the kids for me? Someone broke into my store and trashed the place."

"Are you serious?!" She yelled. "What the fuck! Where are you now?"

"I'm about 10 minutes from the house."

"I'll meet you there."

"Ok." I ended the call

I closed my eyes and rested my head against the headrest. My thoughts were racing. Was is Jayceon? He was mad when he left. Did Amy find out about his past? Was is Emily? She's been working there for a year but she could still be a suspect.

"Baby." Chris' voice pulled me from my thoughts

I opened my eyes and he was standing at my door.

"We're here. Come on." He gently grabbed my hand and helped me out of the car

"Best friend." Riley walked over to me and pulled me into a tight hug.

A couple tears fell from my eyes. She pulled back and wiped my face.

"Don't let this upset you. Yes it's terrible but I know you will only come back harder from this minor setback."

I nodded "You're right."

"The kids are in the living room." Chris walked over. "The police are already there and waiting."

"Well you go ahead. Keep me updated." Riley gave me one last hug and then walked inside the house.

The ride to my store was quiet. Chris rubbed my thigh with his free hand the entire time he drove to keep my nerves down.

When we pulled into the parking lot, the scene was roped off with yellow caution tape. I got out of the car and walked over to the officers. They began to go over their basic protocol for break ins and vandalism. I stood there taking everything in.

"So I have an alarm system, Why didn't it go off or alert me?" I crossed my arms

"That was my next point, follow me." He walked to the side of the building. "What we have here is a tampered electrical box. Now with most alarm systems, when the power goes out, there's a window of 30 minutes to an hour before it trips a secondary alarm. What it looks like to me is, whoever did this knew that, came around here, disconnected the power, did what they did, reconnected the power then fled the scene. Do you have cameras inside?"

I nodded

"Are they connected to the alarm system?"

"No." Chris shook his head. "I installed those myself."

"Well we haven't been inside yet so let's go take a look inside and you can get the tape for that night while we're in there."

We followed behind the officer and came back to the front of the store. Seeing everything damaged broke my heart. Tears streamed down my face as I walked inside. Glass crunched under my feet. My new collab with Supreme was ruined, everything was either ripped or had paint on it. I stood in the middle of the store and did a complete 360, looking at every inch of the store.

I couldn't stop the tears from falling no matter how hard I tried. Chris pulled me into a hug and I laid my head on his chest.

"Who would do something like this?" I spoke randomly. "Knowing this is my dream. My stores are like my kids too."

"I know baby." He kissed the top of my head as he guided me to my office.

I sat in my chair as Chris pulled up the tapes. The officer from earlier walked in with a pen and pad. He started the tape from Midnight and nothing had happened. We watched intently as he sped it up a bit. At 2:47AM two cars pulled up to the front of the store with their bright lights on.

A man dressed in all black got out of one car and jogged to the side of the building. A few seconds later the cameras went black. After about five minutes, the cameras were back on.

"So you have cameras with a back up battery reserve. Smart." The officer nodded.

At that point, they were already in the process of fucking shit up. It was now a man and woman in the store. Clothes were flying everywhere, my mannequins were getting pushed over and broken. I held my head down, not wanting to watch it any longer.

"Woah. I think we just got a glimpse of the woman's face." The officer spoke.

My head popped up and I looked at the screen. "Go back." I slid closer to the monitor to make sure I got a good look.

"If you can identify either one, let me know." The officer had his pen and pad ready.

The woman's face flashed across the screen and a wave of anger filled my body.

"Run that back on more time." I spoke to Chris, never taking my eyes off of the screen.

I watched the clip again and shook my head. My leg was now shaking.

"One more time. Stop and zoom in on the face."

Chris did as I said and I sat back in the chair. I couldn't believe what I was looking at.

"That bitch." I slightly laughed.

"You know her?" The officer looked at me.

I slowly nodded still keeping my eyes on the screen. I clenched my jaw and looked up at the officer.

"It's my mother."