Chapter 6 - Six Thousand Dollars
I held the itinerary so tightly the paper bent.
“Explain this.”
Vanessa looked at the floor.
Dad stood.
“Explain it.”
She shook her head.
“I thought Rachel offered to help.”
I laughed in disbelief.
“Help with a trip I wasn’t invited on?”
Mom stared at the receipt.
“I paid the deposit.”
I looked at her.
“No. You didn’t.”
“I gave Vanessa money.”
“How much?”
“Six thousand.”
Vanessa closed her eyes.
Dad turned slowly toward her.
“Where did your mother’s money go?”
“I was going to replace it.”
Mom made a wounded sound.
“You used my money?”
Vanessa’s tears started again.
“Daniel needed payroll. It was one week. He said he’d put it back before the credit card bill came.”
My pulse hammered.
“What credit card?”
No one answered.
I already knew.
I opened my banking app.
There it was.
A charge from a travel agency for $6,000, dated five days earlier.
It had gone through a card I rarely used, one I kept for automatic utilities and emergencies.
“How did you get that card number?”
Vanessa looked at Mom.
Mom looked away.
I felt physically sick.
“Mom?”
She spoke quietly.
“You left your purse here at Thanksgiving.”
I stared at her.
“You copied my credit card?”
“I gave Vanessa the number because she said you had agreed to cover the trip until she paid you back.”
“I wasn’t invited.”
“I didn’t know that part.”
I looked around the room.
Every betrayal had a smaller betrayal hiding inside it.
Dad pointed at the phone in Vanessa’s hand.
“Tell Daniel to come here.”
“He can’t.”
“Tell him now.”
Daniel must have heard because his voice came through speaker.
“I’m not walking into an ambush.”
Dad shouted for the first time.
“You stole from my family!”
Lily jumped.
I grabbed her coat.
“That’s it. We’re leaving.”
Mom followed me.
“Rachel, please.”
I stopped at the door.
“Please what?”
She had no answer.
“Please don’t report the card?” I asked. “Please don’t cancel the cruise? Please don’t make Vanessa face consequences?”
Mom’s eyes filled.
“I’m trying to keep this family together.”
“No. You’ve spent years keeping one daughter comfortable.”
Her face tightened.
“That’s unfair.”
I opened the door.
“So was today.”
My phone buzzed.
A text from an unknown number.
YOU NEED TO STOP DIGGING INTO DANIEL’S BUSINESS.
A second message appeared.
YOU HAVE A DAUGHTER. THINK ABOUT HER.
I stared at the screen.
Then I looked through the front window.
May you like
Across the street, a black SUV was parked with its engine running.
The moment I raised my phone to take a picture, it pulled away.
