Chapter 1
I came home early and saw my mother-in-law walking out of my bedroom. Ten minutes later, I opened my locked drawer and realized the $10,000 I had hidden there was gone.
“Were you in my room?” I asked.
Carol stopped in the hallway.
She didn’t even look surprised.
“I was putting away laundry.”
“You don’t do my laundry.”
Her mouth tightened.
I walked past her and opened the bottom drawer of my dresser.
Empty.
The envelope was gone.
My hands started shaking.
That money was everything I had saved for my daughter’s emergency surgery fund.
I turned around.
“Where is it?”
Carol folded her arms.
“Where is what?”
“The ten thousand dollars.”
Her face changed for half a second.
That was enough.
“You took it.”
She laughed.
“You’re accusing me of stealing in my son’s house?”
“This is my house too.”
“No,” she said. “It’s Michael’s house.”
I stepped closer.
“Give me back the money.”
Her eyes hardened.
“You’ve always been disrespectful.”
“And you’ve always treated me like I’m temporary.”
Then I saw something sticking out of her purse.
The corner of my white envelope.
I reached for it.
Carol slapped me so hard my head snapped sideways.
I froze.
So did she.
Then my seven-year-old daughter, Emma, appeared at the top of the stairs.
“Grandma hit Mommy.”
Carol looked up at her.
“Go back to your room.”
Emma didn’t move.
I grabbed Carol’s purse.
She screamed and tried to pull it away.
The envelope fell onto the floor.
But when I picked it up, it was empty.
I stared at her.
“Where is the cash?”
She suddenly looked nervous.
“I don’t have it.”
“You just stole it.”
“No.”
“Then who does?”
The front door opened.
Michael walked in.
Carol immediately started crying.
“She attacked me.”
I couldn’t believe it.
Michael looked at my red cheek.
Then at his mother.
Then at the empty envelope in my hand.
I waited for him to ask what happened.
Instead, he said, “Sarah, give Mom her purse back.”
I stared at him.
“You knew.”
His face went pale.
Carol whispered, “Don’t.”
That one word made my stomach drop.
I looked from her to my husband.
“What did you two do with my daughter’s surgery money?”
Michael said nothing.
Then Emma came downstairs holding something in her small hand.
A bank receipt.
“I found this in Grandma’s coat,” she said.
I took it.
It showed a $10,000 cash deposit made that afternoon.
Into an account with a name I didn’t recognize.
Rebecca Collins.
I looked at Michael.
“Who is Rebecca?”
He stopped breathing.
May you like
Carol closed her eyes.
And my daughter whispered, “Daddy knows her.”
