Richard let go and tried to bolt for the exit — and there, stepping out of the side corridor directly into his path, was Mrs.

Gable, holding a paper cup of scalding hospital coffee like a weapon.

“Don’t you DARE, you piece of garbage!” she shouted.

He was trapped between the law on one side and the whole force of the neighborhood on the other, and they put him against the wall and cuffed him under the hard white hospital lights.

As they walked him away, he turned his head, trying one last time to fix me with the look that had ruled me for years.

“You are going to regret this, Maya!”