Chapter 4 - The Money
Dad stared at Lauren.
"What do you mean, almost nothing left?"
She crossed her arms.
"Exactly what I said."
"Lauren."
"You've been pretending we can afford two college-bound girls. We can't."
I wanted to disappear.
Dad's voice hardened. "Claire has a college account from her mother."
Lauren looked away.
The room changed.
I had heard about that account my entire life.
My mother, Erin, died when I was nine. She had been a public-school teacher. Before she got sick, she and Dad saved what they could in a 529 plan.
Dad always said there would not be enough for everything, but enough to help.
"How much is in it?" I asked.
Dad did not answer immediately.
Then he opened his banking app.
His face drained.
"Michael?" Lauren said.
He turned the screen away from her.
"Where is the money?"
I felt cold.
"What money?"
Dad looked at me.
"There should be forty-two thousand dollars."
There were less than eleven.
I sat down.
Lauren started talking fast.
"We had expenses. The roof. Mia's therapy. The medical bills last winter."
Dad looked at her.
"That account is not our emergency fund."
"You're the account owner."
"For Claire."
"You transferred money yourself."
He froze.
"I transferred two thousand last year for Claire's laptop."
Lauren said nothing.
Dad pulled transaction history.
Transfers had gone into their joint checking account for more than two years.
$4,000.
$3,500.
$6,800.
$2,900.
Then one transfer for $8,200 three weeks earlier.
Dad stared at it.
"What was this?"
I already knew.
Mia's designer handbag had been purchased three weeks earlier.
Lauren followed my eyes.
"Don't be absurd."
Dad opened the credit card statement.
The bag cost $3,060.
There was also a $4,700 payment to a private college admissions consultant.
For Mia.
Paid the same day the money left my mother's education account.
Mia stopped crying.
Dad whispered, "You used Erin's money on Mia."
Lauren's face hardened.
"I used family money on family."
I looked at the shredded dress upstairs.
Then at the woman who had spent my dead mother's savings to help the girl who destroyed it.
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And Dad finally understood this was not one bad morning.
It was a system.
