Chapter 5 - The Girl Who Earned Nothing
"I don't even have a credit card," I told Renee.
We called the lender from her kitchen table.
A customer service representative asked me questions until she was satisfied I was the person named on the account.
"Our records list you as a guarantor for an equipment financing agreement," she said.
"Eleven thousand eight hundred dollars."
My stomach tightened.
"What equipment?"
"A commercial refrigerator and prep station delivered to Good Table Catering."
That was my mother's business.
I'd scrubbed its pans before I was tall enough to reach the sink without a stool.
"I never agreed to that."
"The application has an electronic signature."
"Not mine."
The representative paused.
"I'm marking the account disputed and sending it to our fraud department. You should also consider an identity theft report and contact the credit bureaus."
After the call, Renee brought me water I couldn't drink.
"We need to move carefully," she said.
"Facts first. Dates. Copies. No guessing."
I pulled out my phone and started a list.
Scholarship declined.
Recovery phone changed.
Documents missing.
Loan I hadn't signed.
When I reached the last item, my hand shook so hard I could barely type.
"Mom knows my Social Security number," I said.
"And she kept my old laptop after I got a school-issued one."
"That doesn't prove she used it."
"I know."
I hated how much I wanted to be wrong.
The lender emailed a copy of the application an hour later.
The signature looked like mine from a distance but missed the sharp upward hook I put on the Z.
Below it was an employment verification letter.
It claimed I earned forty-two thousand dollars a year as an assistant manager at Good Table Catering.
I had never earned a salary there.
Mom called it helping the family.
Then I saw the name at the bottom of the letter.
Approved by Patrice Bennett, owner.
May you like
My mother hadn't just borrowed my name.
She'd invented a whole life for me on paper.
