Chapter 4 - A Gift I Never Gave

The email had my name at the top and a sentence I had never written: I'm happy to sponsor the entire event as my unconditional gift to Vanessa and Grant.

Underneath was a scanned image of a signature.

My signature.

Or something close enough to fool a person who wanted to be fooled.

“Where did he get that?” I asked.

Dad stared at the page. “Grant said you'd changed your mind about being reimbursed.”

“I never said that. Vanessa told me her company might reimburse part of the charter. I paid twenty thousand dollars because they needed the reservation secured, and I signed for the remaining charges.”

Dad's jaw tightened. “Your mother said you offered.”

Across the dock, Mom was telling guests that an administrative error had delayed boarding. An administrative error. I could still hear those laughing emojis.

I went straight to her. “Did you tell Dad I gave Vanessa eighty-five thousand dollars?”

“Don't use that tone with me.”

“Answer the question.”

Mom glanced toward the guests. “I said you were helping your sister. You're doing fine financially. Why are you trying to humiliate her?”

“Because you both humiliated me first?”

“Evelyn.” Her warning voice was the same one she'd used when I was a child and asked why Vanessa received birthday presents on my birthday too. “Family makes sacrifices.”

“Funny how the sacrifice always has my name on it.”

Grant came over, eyes narrowed. “Let's not cause a scene.”

I held up the forged gift email. “Did you write this?”

He glanced at Dad, then at Mom. “It's a summary of our understanding.”

“That's not an answer.”

“You're behaving emotionally.”

“I'm behaving like a person whose signature was copied onto a document.”

The photographer kept shooting. Somebody's phone was filming us. I could feel the whole dock pressing closer.

Grant leaned in. “If you keep talking, people might start asking why a senior accountant was comfortable moving eighty-five thousand dollars around for a family event.”

The threat was casual, almost lazy. But he knew exactly what my job meant to me.

I stepped back. “Are you threatening my career?”

He put his hands in his pockets. “I'm saying optics matter.”

Then his phone lit up. I saw the incoming caller before he turned the screen away.

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