At 3 A.M., My Brother Dragged Me Out of My Bedroom While Dad Laughed—He Had No Idea What the Smoke Detector Had Recorded

“He said he was looking for money.”

“Did you report that?”

“To my father.”

“And?”

“He told me I was making a problem out of nothing.”

Elena waited without interrupting.

“I didn’t put it there because I wanted to start a fight,” I said.

“I put it there because I stopped trusting my own memory.”