Chapter 4
I called Madison before I could talk myself out of it.
She answered on the third ring.
“What do you mean, you know about the trust?”
There was music behind her and the sound of a car door closing.
“You read my message,” she said.
“Yes. Tell me what you know.”
“Dad’s furious. He said Marcus dragged you to the house.”
“Mother invited us.”
Madison gave a sharp sigh. “Listen carefully. The wedding deposits have already been paid. If you start asking questions now, people will lose money.”
“Whose money?”
She did not answer.
I sat up in bed. “Did you know he used Grandma’s trust?”
“I knew there were family accounts.”
“That money was for my medical care.”
“I know what Grandma wanted,” Madison said. “I was there when she talked about it.”
The words stung. She had known Grandma wanted me cared for. She had watched me struggle anyway.
“Then why didn’t you say something?”
“Because Dad said he’d put it back. He still can, if you let him.”
I looked at the clock. It was almost midnight.
“I’m done letting him decide what I’m allowed to know.”
Madison’s voice turned cold. “You’ve always been jealous of me. Don’t use this to ruin my wedding.”
She ended the call.
I found Marcus awake on the couch. He listened while I repeated everything she had said.
“She knows more,” he said.
“I think so.”
In the morning, we met his lawyer, Priya Shah, in a small office above a bookstore. She asked me to tell the story from the beginning. She did not interrupt, even when I had to stop to steady my voice.
Priya examined the photocopy Mother had given us. Then she read Grandma’s trust agreement and the records Marcus had collected.
“We can ask for an emergency accounting,” she said. “We can also ask the court to prevent Richard from moving the remaining funds while this is investigated.”
“How long would that take?”
“We can file today. A judge may consider the request quickly, but the full accounting will take time.”
I showed her Madison’s messages.
Priya asked me to send her copies. “Keep everything she sends you. Don’t argue with her about the money by text.”
Marcus frowned. “Does she have to see her father again?”
“Sarah can decide that,” Priya said.
Hearing someone say I had a choice made my throat tighten.
After the meeting, I went to work at the public library. I helped patrons find books, fixed a jammed printer, and told a little boy where we kept the dinosaur stories.
For three hours, my life felt ordinary.
Then my supervisor asked me into her office.
“My father called,” I said before she could speak.
She looked surprised. “How did you know?”
“He tends to call people when he’s upset with me.”
“He asked if you were well enough to be working.”
I gripped the back of a chair. Dad had used my illness before, but never at my job.
“I am well enough,” I said. “My doctor cleared me to work months ago.”
“I know. Your work is good, Sarah. I thought you should know he called.”
She let me return to my desk. I sat there for a minute, unable to move.
Dad had used my medical condition to dismiss my questions at home. Now he was trying it elsewhere.
I called Priya during my break. She wrote down what happened and told me to send my supervisor an email confirming the call, so there would be a record.
When my shift ended, I found Mother waiting near the library entrance.
She had a suitcase in the trunk of her car.
“I’m staying with Aunt Ruth,” she said. “Your father knows I copied the form. I couldn’t stay in that house tonight.”
I did not know what to say. Part of me wanted to ask her to come upstairs and tell me everything. Another part could still hear her telling me to leave the club.
Mother saw my hesitation.
“I’m not asking you to take care of me,” she said. “I just wanted you to know I got out.”
“Did he hurt you?”
“No. He shouted. Then he tried to make me promise I wouldn’t speak to Priya.”
“Will you?”
Mother looked at the pavement. “Yes.”
Before I could answer, her phone rang. Madison’s name appeared on the screen.
Mother let it ring out.
“She thinks I’m doing this to spite her,” she said.
“She knew about the money.”
“She knew your father used some of it for the wedding. I don’t think she knew about the signature.”
“I asked her last night. She wouldn’t tell me what she knew.”
Mother leaned against the car. “She has spent years learning that if she stays close to him, he’ll give her what she wants.”
“You helped teach her that.”
Mother met my eyes. “I did.”
She drove away before I was ready to say anything else.
That evening, Marcus came to my apartment with takeout. We ate at the small table beside Grandma’s trust papers.
“What would you do if we got the money back?” he asked.
“Pay the hospital.”
“After that?”
I had spent so long counting what I owed that I had never allowed myself to imagine more.
“I’d see my specialist when I needed to,” I said. “Without checking my bank balance first.”
Marcus pushed the extra container of rice toward me. “That sounds like a good start.”
My phone buzzed.
Priya had sent a short message. The court had accepted our filing. Dad would receive notice in the morning.
A minute later, Mrs. Price called.
“I found an approval your father signed on the club’s behalf,” she said. “It lists a payment to Bellweather Events. The supporting invoice has your name on it.”
I set down my fork.
May you like
“I’ve never approved a wedding invoice,” I said.
“That’s what I was afraid you’d say.”
