“Already happening.”
Derek pulled at the heavy manual gate.
It moved several inches before the internal locking system stopped it.
I turned on remote audio.
“Derek.”
He froze.
Then looked up toward the camera.
“You are being recorded.”
He shouted:
“Stop playing games and open the gate!”
“You do not have permission to enter.”
“Your mom said you agreed!”
“My mother does not own this property.”
Mom stepped underneath the camera.
“Emma, stop embarrassing everybody!”
“I’m forty minutes away and somehow I’m not the one standing beside a cut chain.”
Lauren began yelling.
“You said we could come!”
“No, I didn’t.”
“You told Mom!”
“No.”
“She said—”
“I don’t care what she said.”
One of the children had started crying.
That was the part that made me angriest.
Not because of anything the child had done.
Because three adults had deliberately brought children to a forced confrontation.
