Chapter 4 - GRANDMA'S WARNING
I read the letter standing beside the Christmas table while my baby slept against James's shoulder.
My grandmother's handwriting was shaky but unmistakable.
My sweet Sarah,
Your sister has always known how to make the people around her feel responsible for her choices. Your parents have spent years rescuing her. I am afraid they may continue doing so after I'm gone.
I looked at Mom.
She was crying silently now.
I kept reading.
The money I am leaving you belongs to you alone. It is not Lauren's emergency fund. It is not your parents' money. It is yours because I have watched you work for everything you've ever had, often while being asked to sacrifice for someone who would never do the same for you.
My throat closed.
Memories rushed back.
Being seventeen and giving Lauren my savings after she wrecked her car.
Missing my senior trip because Mom said Lauren “needed support.”
Letting Lauren move into my apartment after college.
Finding cigarette burns in the carpet and three months of unpaid utility bills after she left.
Always Lauren.
Always the emergency.
Always me cleaning up afterward.
There was more.
If your parents misuse the trust before you receive control of it, Robert has been given copies of all financial documents and instructions to provide them to you.
I lowered the letter.
My father stared at Robert.
“You had copies?”
Robert nodded.
“Yes.”
“For four years?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you say something?”
Robert's expression hardened.
“Because Evelyn asked me to wait until Sarah learned the truth herself or turned twenty-eight, whichever came first.”
I looked at him.
“Why twenty-eight?”
“Your grandmother hoped Tom and Diane would do the right thing before then.”
He gave my parents a sad look.
“She didn't want to destroy your family unnecessarily.”
I almost laughed.
Destroy my family?
The family had been destroying itself quietly for years.
“Where are the records?”
Robert pulled out his phone.
“In my safe-deposit box.”
Dad stepped toward him.
“This is absurd.”
“No,” James said quietly.
Dad stopped.
James adjusted Emma in his arms.
“This is evidence.”
My father looked at him.
“We're not criminals.”
James said nothing.
That silence was worse.
Mom rushed toward me.
“Sarah, please. We'll work this out.”
“You had four years.”
“We can repay you.”
“With what?”
Mom looked away.
Dad's jaw clenched.
“Our house has equity.”
“And Lauren?”
“What about her?”
“She got one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”
Dad shook his head.
“She doesn't have it anymore.”
“Of course she doesn't.”
“She invested some.”
“In what?”
No answer.
Robert spoke again.
“Lauren's business.”
I turned.
“What business?”
Mom wiped her eyes.
“She wanted to open a boutique.”
I stared at her.
The little fashion boutique Lauren constantly bragged about online.
The one she claimed she'd “built from nothing.”
The one whose opening party I'd attended.
The one where she'd stood with champagne in her hand and announced that success came from “taking risks other people were too afraid to take.”
My money.
She'd built it with my money.
“How much?”
Dad whispered, “Eighty thousand.”
I felt sick.
James looked at me.
“We should go.”
I nodded.
But before we could move, headlights swept across the front windows.
A car pulled into the driveway.
Mom looked toward the entryway.
Dad's face tightened.
A door slammed outside.
Three seconds later, someone pounded on the front door.
Bang.
Bang.
Bang.
“OPEN THE DOOR!”
Lauren.
James handed Emma back to me.
Then another voice came from outside.
A man's voice.
Lauren's husband, Derek.
“Tom! Open this damn door!”
My father went pale.
I looked at him.
“What now?”
He didn't answer.
The pounding became violent.
And Derek shouted six words that made everyone in the room freeze.
May you like
“Tell Sarah what her husband signed!”
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