Chapter 3 - THE MONEY GRANDMA NEVER RECEIVED
Sarah called Patricia the following morning.
She did it while Lily was sitting beside her at the breakfast table.
Not because she wanted Lily listening.
Because Lily had refused to let Sarah leave the room.
“Mom, how much did I pay you last month for watching Lily?”
Patricia sounded irritated.
“What kind of question is that?”
“How much?”
“You give me whatever you feel like giving me.”
“Number, Mom.”
A pause.
“Two hundred.”
Sarah looked at the payment history.
Seven hundred.
“What about March?”
“I don’t keep a ledger.”
“I sent seven hundred dollars in March.”
“Well, I didn’t get seven hundred.”
“How much did you get?”
“Two.”
Sarah opened another month.
February.
Seven hundred sent to Megan.
“February?”
“Sarah, I’m not doing this.”
“Two hundred?”
Patricia exhaled.
“Yes.”
Sarah stopped scrolling.
For more than a year, she had believed she was contributing fairly to her mother’s time and household.
Patricia believed Sarah was giving her less than one-third of that amount.
“Who told you I was sending two hundred?”
“Megan transfers it.”
“So Megan told you?”
“Yes.”
“Did she ever show you what I sent?”
“Why would she need to?”
Sarah closed her eyes.
Because you trusted her.
The same reason Sarah had.
Patricia’s voice sharpened.
“This has nothing to do with Lily’s behavior.”
“It has everything to do with it if you’ve spent a year thinking I’m using you.”
“I never said using.”
“You said she had to earn shelter.”
Patricia went quiet.
Sarah lowered her voice.
“Mom, where did the other five hundred dollars go every month?”
“I don’t know.”
“Megan does.”
Patricia immediately became defensive.
“She pays for plenty around here.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“Megan has had a terrible year.”
“Still not my question.”
Patricia hung up.
Sarah stared at the phone.
Across from her, Lily pushed cereal around her bowl.
“Is Grandma mad?”
“Yes.”
“At me?”
Sarah reached across the table.
“No.”
The answer came quickly.
The guilt did not.
Because Sarah had allowed Lily to return to Patricia’s house even after the chores became excessive.
She had noticed.
She had questioned.
Then she had chosen convenience over conflict.
She could explain the reasons.
Work.
Money.
The difficulty of finding care.
Patricia being Lily’s grandmother.
None of those reasons changed what Lily experienced.
At nine, Sarah called her supervisor and asked for two personal days.
Then she called a licensed after-school and school-break program near Lily’s elementary school.
There was a waiting list.
The next available full-time opening would cost nearly twice what Sarah thought she had been paying Patricia.
She put down a deposit anyway.
That was the first serious consequence.
Sarah would have to cut expenses.
Possibly delay replacing her thirteen-year-old Honda.
Maybe take fewer hours if coverage failed.
But Lily would not return to Patricia’s house because adult finances were inconvenient.
At noon, Megan sent a message.
Mom is devastated. You’re turning this into something it isn’t.
Sarah replied with one screenshot.
Eighteen months of $700 transfers.
Then one question.
How much of this did Mom receive?
Megan did not answer.
Thirty-seven minutes later, Sarah received a different message.
From Eric.
Megan’s estranged husband.
I don’t know what’s happening, but Megan just asked me whether old Venmo records can be subpoenaed in a family dispute.
May you like
Sarah read it twice.
Then she called him.
