Chapter 7 - Tyler Learns the Truth
Tyler called me twenty minutes later.
“What did you mean about the engagement party?”
“Ask Melanie.”
“I did. She says you’re lying.”
“I have the bank records.”
Silence.
“What records?”
“The twenty-four-thousand-dollar loan in my name. Eight thousand four hundred went to BrightLine Events.”
“That was our party.”
“Yeah.”
“She told me your parents paid.”
“They did. With my identity.”
Tyler swore quietly.
Then he said, “She told me you hated your family. That you never helped.”
I stared through the windshield.
“She said that?”
“For two years.”
Before I could answer, Melanie’s voice exploded in the background.
“Who are you talking to?”
“Aaron.”
“What the hell, Tyler?”
The phone shifted. Then Melanie was yelling directly at me.
“You’re destroying my relationship because you’re jealous!”
“Jealous of what?”
“You’ve always hated that people love me.”
Tyler interrupted.
“Melanie, where did the wedding deposit come from?”
She stopped.
So did I.
Tyler came back to the phone.
“There’s a fifteen-thousand-dollar venue deposit.”
My stomach dropped.
“Check the date.”
“December eighteenth.”
I opened the joint account.
A pending charge stared back at me.
HAWTHORNE MANOR - $15,000.
That was why Mom had panicked when I froze the account.
May you like
My money wasn’t just paying for Christmas.
It was about to pay for Melanie’s wedding.
