Chapter 10 - A Name on the Payroll
The investigator's name was Dana Brooks, which was an uncomfortable coincidence.
She was careful and precise.
"The application lists you as an assistant manager," she told me.
"It also lists a direct-deposit account in your name."
I nearly dropped the phone.
"I only have one checking account."
"We'll verify whether this other account belongs to you before making any conclusions."
Two days later, my bank confirmed that an account had been opened online using my identity and a mailing address at Good Table Catering.
I had never opened it.
My mother had been sending money through an account with my name on it, as if I were a financial ghost she could summon whenever the business needed help.
Renee stayed with me while I filed an identity theft report and submitted disputes to the bank and credit reporting agencies.
I felt sick clicking the boxes.
Each one asked me to state that somebody had used my information without permission.
I didn't want it to be my mother.
I couldn't keep pretending it wasn't happening.
At school, Ms. Patel had arranged a meeting with Leah and a Northvale scholarship administrator named Dr. Rowan.
He listened without interrupting as I explained the portal withdrawal.
"We have evidence you were in the school lab when it was submitted," he said.
"That matters."
"Can I get my scholarship back?"
"A committee has to approve a correction. We're treating your request urgently."
I pressed my nails into my palm.
"Classes start in six weeks."
"I know."
He pushed another document across the table.
It was a signed statement supposedly confirming that I no longer wanted Northvale staff to contact me.
I recognized the signature immediately.
It wasn't the one I'd used on my scholarship application.
It was the crooked practice signature my mother had taught me to write when I was eleven.
May you like
And at the bottom was a line I had never seen before.
Family representative: Patrice Bennett.
