Page 5 of Bella's Dom (The Doms of Madison County)

Her brows puckered. “I didn’t know the sheriff took statements.”

He smiled down at her. “They do when it’s busy. Come this way.”

He led her to an office she guessed was his. He took a minute to move stacks of papers out of the way before grabbing a pen and piece of paper.

“Let’s start with your full name.”

“Isabella Rose Wentworth.”

“Age and address?” Daniel asked.

They went through a few more basic questions before he looked at her. His face darkened when he caught sight of the injury on her forehead.

“How did that happen?”

“It was my brother, Randy. He’s becoming more and more violent every day. I suspect he’s doing some drugs, but I’m not sure.”

“You live together?” Daniel asked.

“Yes. We have our whole lives. Our mother died when I was eighteen, and Randy was fifteen. Since I had a full-time job and was done with school, the city let him stay with me instead of putting him in a foster home.”

“Hell, you were just a baby yourself and had just lost your mother. That’s a lot of responsibility put on your shoulders.”

She shrugged. “I couldn’t let him go into foster care.”

“So, how old is he now?”

“Nineteen,” Bella said.

“And he is still staying with you?”

She watched the man scribble things down as he asked her questions. “Yes. I can’t get him to leave. I’ve been trying since he turned eighteen.”

“What does he do?”

“Nothing. He sits around with his buddies and gets stoned. He’s never had a job or responsibility, and he likes it that way.”

Daniel grunted. “I bet he does. Where do you work?”

She told him about the diner and an office building that she cleans.

“That’s a lot,” he said.

“Yes, but I needed the money because I was supporting two adults instead of one.” She could tell he wasn’t pleased by the answer, but he moved on.

“Has your brother ever hurt you before?”

Bella nodded. “Yes. But this was the worst,” she said and pointed at her forehead.

“I’d like to get a picture of that for the record. Do you have anything else?”

“A few bruises,” she said. She hadn’t wanted to admit to the sheriff that most of her body had bruises her brother caused. She felt ashamed that she’d let the situation go on so long without doing something about it.

“I’ll have my front assistant, Tamera, take the pictures.”

Bella relaxed. She hadn’t been looking forward to him seeing her without clothing on.

“You need to find another place to stay until we can get him taken care of,” Daniel said.

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