CHAPTER 2 – THE PAPERS THEY NEVER READ
Not because I was angry.
Anger burns hot.
This was colder than anger.
This was calculation.
At six the next morning, before Owen even came downstairs, I called the bank.
"I'm reporting unauthorized transfers from a custodial college account."
The woman on the phone became very quiet.
"Ma'am... according to our records, the transfer was authorized using a notarized power of attorney."
My stomach dropped.
"A what?"
She read the document number.
It was my mother's signature.
And mine.
Except...
It wasn't mine.
Someone had forged it.
The representative immediately froze the receiving account and advised me to file both a fraud report and a police report before noon.
By eight-thirty, Owen and I were sitting across from Detective Melissa Grant.
She spread the documents across the table.
"They copied your signature surprisingly well," she admitted.
"But not well enough."
She pointed at the date.
"The notary listed here died eighteen months ago."
Silence.
Then she looked at me.
"Mrs. Collins..."
"This wasn't just theft."
"This was organized fraud."
...
By lunchtime, subpoenas had already been issued to the bank.
The receiving account belonged exactly where I expected.
Sabrina Carter.
Not Carter's account.
His mother's.
Which meant Carter probably didn't even know where the money had come from.
I almost felt sorry for him.
Almost.
When Detective Grant asked if I wanted to call my parents before officers contacted them, I shook my head.
"No."
"They've had seventy-three thousand dollars' worth of chances."
...
That evening my phone rang.
Mom.
I let it ring.
Dad.
Ignored.
Then Sabrina.
I answered.
"What did you DO?" she screamed.
"You froze my account!"
"No," I replied calmly.
"The bank froze stolen money."
"You reported your own parents?"
"I reported whoever emptied my daughter's account."
"You'll destroy this family!"
I looked over at Anna doing homework at the kitchen table.
Without looking away from her, I answered softly,
"No."
"They already did."
She hung up.
May you like
Five minutes later...
The police knocked on my parents' front door.
