Chapter 8 - My Name on Her Card
Dad reported the card that night.
The bank froze it.
The fraud department asked for a police report.
Lauren called before we even finished.
"Are you seriously doing this to Mia?"
Dad put her on speaker.
"Doing what?"
"Getting police involved over a credit card."
"A credit card opened in Claire's name."
"Mia was going to pay it back."
I leaned toward the phone.
"With what?"
Silence.
Mia did not have a job.
Lauren paid her allowance.
Dad said, "How did she open it?"
Lauren's voice sharpened. "You know how online applications work."
"She needed Claire's Social Security number."
Another silence.
Then Dad understood.
The same emergency folder.
Birth certificates.
Insurance cards.
Tax documents.
Everything Lauren had insisted on organizing "for the family."
Dad whispered, "You gave her Claire's information."
Lauren hung up.
The next morning, Mia showed up at the house alone.
She looked furious, not sorry.
"You're ruining my life."
I stared at her from the porch.
"You opened debt in my name."
"Mom said we'd fix it before you found out."
"That's not a defense."
She started crying.
"I needed clothes for senior pictures. I needed the bag. Everyone at school has nicer stuff than me."
"So you stole my identity?"
"You always get everything!"
I laughed.
"Like what? A dead mom? A shredded dress? A stolen scholarship interview?"
She flinched.
Then she shouted, "At least your mom loved you!"
The words stopped me.
Mia's biological father had left when she was three.
Lauren had spent years turning that wound into a competition neither of us asked for.
For one second, I saw a hurt seventeen-year-old girl.
Then she said:
"Besides, the card wasn't even Mom's idea."
Dad stepped out behind me.
"Whose idea was it?"
Mia looked at him.
May you like
And her face changed.
"Yours.
