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I will never give up.The words repeated in my head.
Once I entered the police station, an officer behind the intake desk, Officer Cantu, badge 2627, escorted me through a door, down a hallway, and into a room at the end of the hall. As the officer opened the door, I noticed the room was pretty dark due to the lack of windows. There was a table in the center of the room with one chair on one side and two chairs on the other that was closest to the door.
"Please, take a seat," he said with a slightly reassuring tone.
I peeked over my shoulder at him, swallowed the lump in my throat, and nodded, signifying I understood.
"Thank you," I replied, my voice barely above a whisper.
I made my way to the other side of the room and sat on the side with only one chair. After I was seated, the officer offered me a small smile. "Hang in there. They'll be with you shortly."
With that, he shut the door behind him, leaving me alone in the room.
I took a moment to take a few breaths, trying to calm my nerves. My eyes wandered around the room, and I saw a video camera attached to the corner of the ceiling and then noticed the mirror located on the left side of me on the wall. In that moment, I realized I was in an interrogation room.
"Holy shit," I muttered under my breath. All I could think about was how I tried to protect myself, and now I was the one being questioned and possibly in trouble.
The longer I sat there, the more nervous I became. I started running my sweaty hands along my pants. My right knee started to bounce with nerves. The minutes felt like hours. Antsy, I sat there waiting for someone to come in, but as I peeked at my watch, I saw it was only about five minutes.
When the door swung open, two men came in. One of them I recognized from the hospital last night. The other, I had no idea who he was, and thankfully he didn’t keep me waiting.
"Thank you for coming in, Mackenna. My name is Detective Richard Bose. This is Officer Griffin Barnes. You may remember him from last night," the detective said.
As he walked further into the room, he gestured to the table.
"We're going to sit and talk with you for a little while," he said.
They both sat at the table, and I kept my eyes on Griffin because he was the one I had met, and I knew he had a relationship with the gym. I stayed silent as the detective flipped through some papers he took from a folder. Once he got through the papers, I noticed pictures a handful of pictures as well. Between the dark, confined room and the silence, I felt like the walls were closing in on me. I needed to calm down.
Finally, the detective finished reading the paperwork and looked up at me. "I'm going to ask you a few questions about last night. Are you okay with that?"
I nodded and said, "Sure."
After answering what felt like a million questions about what happened the night before with Brad and telling them the shortened version of my past with him in Boston, I thought I would be good to go.
Detective Bose cleared his throat. “Mackenna,” he started to say, “Brad is saying that you saw him at the hotel last night and invited him to your place.”
“That’s a lie.”
“Let me finish,” the detective said. “Once he got there, and things started to get romantically physical, he had a change of heart. He stated you were the aggressor. That you would not let him go and started getting aggressive, giving him no choice but to protect himself. Brad went on to say that you stabbed him after he tried to leave. We have his written statement here as well as pictures of his injuries."
"Are you fucking kidding me? He's lying. Look at my face. Do you see the bruises? I had to protect myself from him. This is insane." As I shouted at the detective, I hadn't even realized I was no longer sitting.
At some point, I had stood up and leaned over the table. When I finished, I slowly dropped back into my seat, realizing I was probably doing more harm than good.
"Detective," I went on, "I left Boston after I couldn't take it anymore. I came home thinking he could never hurt me again. But he followed me home last night and did this to me." I pointed to my face.
"Mackenna, this isn't up to me. I have no choice but to send both statements to the District Attorney. It's up to him to decide if this case will progress."
"Wait! Are you telling me I could be in trouble for protecting myself? You must be kidding me. This is bullshit!" I yelled.
"Mackenna, I suggest you calm down." Detective Bose rose from his seat. "As of right now, you're free to go, but we may need additional information. Officer Barnes will see you out."
I shook my head back and forth, disgusted that this was happening. I left the room and made my way down the hallway. I moved quickly, needing to get to Ryan, Conor, and Finn, whom I knew would be right past the doors at the end of the hallway.
"Kenna, try not to worry too much,” the detective walking with me said. “I can't imagine the DA thinking this was you."
I looked over at him and just turned away. I couldn't even believe this was happening right now. When we got to the door, he opened it for me and led me over to Ryan and my brothers. I went directly to Ryan and fell into his embrace. Wrapping my arms around his waist, I held on tight.
