Chapter 2 - THE COUSIN THEY USED AS COVER
Emily’s face emptied of expression.
“What do you mean it was already mine?”
Kyle looked toward his grandfather, then his mother. Neither offered him protection. They only watched him with the fury of people whose weakest accomplice had stopped cooperating.
“There was a trust,” he said. “Your dad created it before he died.”
My knees nearly gave out.
Emily’s father, Aaron, had died from a brain aneurysm when she was twelve. He had been thirty-eight years old, healthy enough to run five miles before work, until one Tuesday morning when he collapsed beside the kitchen sink.
After the funeral, Dad had helped me sort through the insurance paperwork. He told me Aaron’s education account for Emily had been drained by medical bills, taxes, and penalties.
I had believed him.
Not because the numbers made sense.
Because he was my father.
Kyle swallowed. “Grandpa was the trustee. The account was supposed to transfer to Emily when she turned twenty-one.”
Dad rose halfway from his chair. “You don’t understand the documents you found.”
“I understand withdrawals.”
Lorraine stepped between them. “Kyle, sit down.”
“No.”
The word came out quietly, but it stopped her.
Kyle reached beneath his chair and lifted a brown envelope I had watched him carry into the house. I had assumed it held résumés or paperwork for another business idea.
He handed it to Emily.
Inside were copies of bank statements, signed withdrawal forms, and three cashier’s checks. Emily spread them across the table with shaking fingers.
The first check, for twenty-two thousand dollars, had been made payable to Lorraine’s mortgage company.
The second had covered Pete’s failed landscaping business.
The third had been deposited into an account opened for Kyle when he was seventeen.
The total was sixty-seven thousand dollars.
Kyle touched the edge of the third check. “I didn’t know where it came from. Mom told me Grandma had saved money for me.”
Lorraine’s eyes flashed. “Because you deserved a start.”
“With Emily’s money?”
“You were having a hard time.”
“So you robbed her?”
My mother gasped as though the word itself were more offensive than the theft.
“We did not rob anyone,” Diane said. “We redistributed family resources during an emergency.”
Emily lifted her eyes from the statements. “You told me my dad left me nothing.”
Dad pointed at me. “Your mother was barely functioning. Someone had to make responsible decisions.”
My grief became his excuse. My trust became his permission.
For seven years, I had carried a private resentment toward Aaron. I had believed he had failed to prepare for Emily’s future. I had stood at his grave and forgiven him for something he had never done.
Dad had not only stolen money.
He had changed the way I remembered my husband.
I pressed a hand against the table to steady myself.
“You let me blame Aaron.”
Frank’s expression remained hard. “Aaron was dead. Lorraine’s family was alive and in danger of losing their home.”
“So you stole from his daughter.”
“I saved my other daughter.”
Lorraine’s eyes filled with tears, but they weren’t tears of guilt. They were the tears she used when consequences approached.
“You had a stable job,” she said to me. “You owned a house. Emily was gifted. Kyle struggled with anxiety and depression. Was I supposed to let my family collapse while money sat untouched in an account?”
Emily stared at her aunt.
“That money was from my father.”
“You didn’t even know it existed.”
“And that made it yours?”
Pete covered his face with both hands.
Diane turned to Kyle. “You have no idea what your mother sacrificed for you.”
Kyle laughed bitterly. “She didn’t sacrifice anything. She took it from Emily.”
Lorraine slapped her palm against the table. “I kept a roof over your head!”
“You also told everyone I was too fragile to work while you used me as an excuse for stealing.”
Dad moved toward the envelope.
I blocked him.
“Sit down.”
“You don’t order me around in my house.”
“Then call the police and explain why you’re trying to destroy bank records.”
Silence settled over the room.
Dad stopped moving.
My mother’s voice became soft and coaxing. “Rebecca, this can remain private. Emily has done wonderfully. She doesn’t need that old account anymore.”
Emily’s eyes filled, but she did not look away.
“That’s why you chose today,” she said. “You knew I had enough money to replace what you stole.”
No one denied it.
May you like
The dinner had never been about helping Kyle.
They wanted Emily to refill her own trust so the missing money would disappear before the bank’s mandatory review.
