Chapter 4 - Three Hundred Twelve Thousand Dollars
My father asked everyone except immediate family to leave the private dining room.
Within minutes, the room that had been prepared for celebration felt like a courtroom.
Lucas sat beside Sophie.
Aunt Marlene remained near the bar.
My mother refused to sit.
Alexander and I stood together near the windows.
My father placed both hands on the back of a chair.
“Emily’s grandmother left more than we told her.”
My mouth went dry.
“How much?”
My mother snapped.
“Robert.”
He looked at her.
“I’m done.”
Those two words stunned her more than anything Alexander had said.
My father turned back to me.
“Your grandmother left you a trust worth a little over four hundred thousand dollars.”
I stared at him.
My mother had told me it was eighty thousand.
Then she told me the market had destroyed most of that.
“I never received anything.”
“I know.”
My father looked down.
“Catherine became the temporary trustee after your grandmother died.”
Alexander’s expression changed.
He understood before I did.
“She had access.”
My father nodded.
“Until Emily turned twenty-five.”
I was twenty-six.
The room felt colder.
“How much is left?”
My father closed his eyes.
“About ninety thousand.”
I did the math before anyone spoke.
Three hundred ten thousand dollars.
Gone.
Alexander pulled out his phone.
He sent one message.
I looked at him.
“To whom?”
“Rebecca.”
His attorney.
My mother laughed bitterly.
“There it is.”
“The billionaire calls his lawyers.”
Alexander slipped his phone away.
“No.”
“The husband calls a lawyer after discovering his wife may have been defrauded.”
Lucas stood.
“Can everybody stop saying fraud?”
Sophie looked at him.
“What would you call it?”
He had no answer.
I faced my father.
“What did she spend it on?”
He looked at my mother.
She said nothing.
My father began listing things.
Lucas’s graduate school tuition.
A down payment on his first apartment.
A failed restaurant investment.
Family vacations I had been told they could not afford to include me on.
Aunt Marlene’s credit card debt.
Renovations to my parents’ house.
And now Lucas’s wedding.
Every item felt like a photograph from my past suddenly developing in a different color.
When Lucas graduated, my parents threw a party for eighty people.
When I graduated, they said money was tight.
When Lucas moved into his apartment, my mother called it proof that he was becoming successful.
When I asked for help with a security deposit two months later, she told me adulthood required sacrifice.
I started laughing.
It came out wrong.
Broken.
“Emily.”
Alexander reached for my hand.
“I’m okay.”
I was not.
My mother finally spoke.
“You benefited from that family too.”
I looked at her.
“How?”
“I raised you.”
The room went completely silent.
Even Aunt Marlene looked uncomfortable.
I nodded slowly.
“There it is.”
My mother’s face hardened.
“You have no idea what I sacrificed for you.”
“Then tell me.”
She looked away.
Before she could answer, Alexander’s phone rang.
He checked the screen.
Rebecca.
He answered.
“Yes?”
We could only hear his side.
His expression grew colder with every second.
Finally, he looked at me.
“Are you certain?”
A pause.
“Send it.”
He ended the call.
I asked what she had found.
Alexander hesitated.
For the first time that evening, he looked like he wished he could protect me from the answer.
“It isn’t three hundred twelve thousand.”
My heart sank.
“How much?”
“Rebecca found two additional accounts connected to your Social Security number.”
He turned the phone toward me.
The number on the screen made my knees weak.
Six hundred forty-seven thousand dollars.
And beneath it was something worse.
A loan application.
May you like
Signed by me.
Except I had never seen it before.
