Chapter 1
She Stole My $5,000 College Savings… Then My Dad Saw the Bank Alert 😳💔
I opened my college savings account after school and thought the banking app had made a mistake.
The balance said $12.43.
I refreshed the screen three times because there should have been more than $5,000.
That money was everything I had saved from birthdays, babysitting jobs, and two summers working at a grocery store in Dallas.
“Diane!” I shouted from the kitchen.
My stepmother walked in slowly, and the second she saw my phone, her face changed.
“Where is my money?”
She crossed her arms. “Lower your voice.”
My stomach dropped.
“You know where it went?”
Before she answered, my stepbrother Trey walked downstairs holding his car keys.
“Oh,” he said casually. “That.”
I stared at him. “What do you mean, that?”
Diane finally said, “Trey needed help.”
I almost laughed because I thought she had to be joking.
Then Trey shrugged and said, “Mom used it for my lawyer and bail.”
Two weeks earlier, Trey had been arrested after getting a DUI.
“You took my college money for his DUI?”
Diane stepped closer. “He made a mistake, Maya.”
“So you punished me for it?”
Trey rolled his eyes. “Relax. I'll pay you back when I get a job.”
“You haven't had a job in eight months!”
Diane slammed her hand against the counter. “Enough!”
She told me that because I was seventeen and she was my legal guardian, she had every right to make financial decisions for the family.
I could barely breathe.
“That account has my name on it.”
“And this family has bills,” she snapped.
Then the front door opened.
My dad walked inside still wearing his work clothes, holding his phone in one hand.
Nobody said a word.
He looked at Diane first.
Then Trey.
Then me.
“Maya,” he said quietly, “why did the bank just send me a fraud alert for your college account?”
Diane immediately stepped between us.
“David, I can explain.”
My dad's eyes moved to my phone and the nearly empty balance.
His face went completely still.
“How much did you take?”
May you like
Diane hesitated.
Then Dad looked back at the alert and whispered, “Wait… this isn't the only transfer.”
