Chapter 5 - The First Lie
Ryan read the name without blinking.
Then he looked at his wife.
“Tell me this is wrong.”
Vanessa’s eyes flashed. “It is.”
Grandma said, “The bank’s audit log says otherwise.”
“That proves nothing.”
“It proves your account submitted the request.”
“My account was hacked.”
Diane nodded too quickly. “Exactly.”
Ryan laughed once, without humor.
“By who?”
Vanessa pointed at me.
“Her.”
A few relatives gasped.
I stared at my sister.
For a second, I was sixteen again, standing in Dad’s kitchen while Vanessa held a broken necklace and told everyone I had snapped it because I was jealous. It had taken three months for Diane to admit she had seen Vanessa break it herself.
Nothing had changed.
“You think I stole Grandma’s money?” I asked.
“I think you’re obsessed with proving you belong here.”
Grandma’s face hardened.
“Vanessa.”
“No, let her hear it. She has always wanted what I have.”
I felt something inside me go quiet.
“What exactly do you have that I want?”
Her mouth tightened.
“A real place in this family.”
There it was.
Dad flinched.
I looked at him.
“Are you going to say anything?”
He rubbed one hand over his face. “Girls, please.”
Grandma snapped, “They are thirty-two and twenty-nine, Thomas. Stop calling them girls when what you mean is stop holding anyone accountable.”
Dad went pale.
Ryan was still staring at Vanessa.
“If Clara hacked your account, there will be a record.”
“There is,” Vanessa said.
That surprised me.
She pulled her phone from a white satin clutch and opened a screenshot.
“Three weeks ago she texted me asking for Grandma’s banking login.”
She held the screen toward Ryan.
The message appeared to come from my number.
Need Grandma’s login. She won’t notice one transfer if we move it before the statement closes.
For the first time all night, my stomach dropped.
“I never sent that.”
Vanessa smiled.
“Of course you didn’t.”
Ryan studied the screenshot.
Then his eyes stopped on the timestamp.
His expression changed.
“Wait.”
He looked at me.
“Clara, where were you on August twelfth at 7:18 p.m.?”
May you like
Before I could answer, he turned to Vanessa.
“I know exactly where she was.”
