“We can explain.”
Claire stood in a temporary apartment the trust had paid for under emergency provisions. Lily slept in a bassinet beside the couch.
“Then explain.”
“We used money for the household because you lived here.”
“I have not lived there full-time in three years.”
“You still came home.”
“For holidays.”
“We paid for food, insurance, your phone—”
“Twelve thousand dollars a month?”
Her mother went silent.
Claire continued.
“You told me you were broke. You told me Grandpa barely sent enough. You let me take extra shifts while pregnant because I thought I needed to pay my own medical bills.”
“We were trying to teach you responsibility.”
The sentence was so grotesque Claire almost laughed.
“By stealing money set aside for me?”
“Do not use that word.”
“What word would you prefer?”
Her mother began crying.
Claire felt nothing soften.
Then her father took the phone.
“This is a family matter.”
“No. It became a financial-crimes matter when someone put my signature on transfers I did not authorize.”
“You would send your parents to jail over money?”
Claire looked at Lily.
“You sent your daughter into a snowstorm after childbirth while living off the money you told her she didn’t have.”
Her father said her name like a warning.
Claire ended the call.
Vanessa’s role took longer to understand.
At first, Claire wanted to believe her sister knew nothing.
Then investigators found messages.
