“What do you mean you handled it?” I asked, wiping tears from my cheeks. “Handled what?”
Natty sat down next to me and patted my shoulder like she was the parent and I was the child.
“Trust us, Mom. Everything’s going to be okay.”
I stared at my daughters, completely lost. Here I was having the worst moment of my life, and they were acting like they knew some secret. It didn’t like they weren’t surprised at all.
“Girls, I don’t understand. The money for your college, for your future, it’s all gone. Your father isn’t answering his phone, and I don’t know what happened or how to fix this.”
Libby and Natty exchanged another look. This time, I caught something in their eyes that sent chills down my spine. It wasn’t sadness or fear.
It was satisfaction.
“Mom,” Natty said softly, “there are things you don’t know yet. Things about Dad that we discovered.”
“What things?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper.
But before they could answer, both girls grabbed their backpacks and headed toward the door.
“We have to get to school,” Libby said. “But don’t worry about the money, Mom. We promise you everything is going to work out exactly the way it should.”
And with that, they left me sitting alone in my kitchen, staring at a bank account with zero dollars and wondering what my own daughters knew that I didn’t.
What do you think happened to Claire’s college fund? And what secret do you think the twins are hiding? Let me know in the comments below, and don’t forget to subscribe for the next chapter, where we’ll uncover the shocking truth about Brandon’s betrayal.
The rest of that Tuesday crawled by like torture. I called Brandon 17 more times. Each call went straight to voicemail. And with every unanswered ring, my panic grew stronger. I couldn’t concentrate on anything. I kept staring at that bank statement, hoping the numbers would somehow change.
By the time the girls came home from school, I was pacing the living room like a caged animal. I’d already called the bank twice, and both times they told me the same thing. The account had been legally accessed by an authorized user. Brandon, my husband, had taken every penny.
“Mom, you look terrible,” Natty said as she walked through the front door. “Did you eat anything today?”
I hadn’t. Food was the last thing on my mind when my entire life was falling apart.
“Sit down,” Libby said, guiding me to the couch. “We need to talk.”
Both girls sat across from me, their expressions serious. Gone were the mysterious smirks from this morning. Now they looked like they were about to deliver news that would change everything.
“What you’re about to hear is going to hurt,” Natty began, pulling out her laptop. “But you need to know the truth about Dad.”
My heart was already broken, but somehow I knew it was about to shatter into even smaller pieces.
Libby took a deep breath.
“Three months ago, I was using Dad’s computer to print my history report because mine was broken. I accidentally opened his email instead of the printer settings.”
There were emails, Mom. Hundreds of them. From a woman named Jessica Martinez.
The name hit me like a physical blow. Jessica Martinez. I knew that name. She worked at Brandon’s construction company as the new project manager. Young, beautiful, fresh out of college. I’d met her at the company Christmas party last year.
Natty opened her laptop and turned it toward me.
“We took screenshots of everything before Dad could delete them.”
