Chapter 4 - The Safe in the Study
As the deputies moved toward my father’s private study, Mom scrambled off the couch, her face streaked with tears and mascara. She lunged toward me, her hands clawing desperately at the sleeve of my jacket.
“Ava, please! Think about what this does to our name! Think about your brother’s track team, his fraternity, his entire life!” she sobbed, shaking me by the arm. “Just call them off! Tell them it’s a prank!”
I gently but firmly peeled her fingers away from my jacket, stepping back out of her reach. Where I once would have felt a pang of guilt or a desperate desire for her approval, I felt only a profound, freezing numbness.
“Where was your concern for my name when Brandon stole my social security card?” I asked quietly, my voice cutting through her hysterics. “Where was your family pride when you watched them drain my dead grandmother’s trust to buy him a truck?”
Mom choked on her own breath, her mouth opening and closing as she realized there was no defense left.
May you like
From down the hallway, the sharp, metallic click of a heavy pry bar hitting the steel door of Dad’s office safe echoed through the house. A second later, a muffled shout of triumph rang out.
“We got it! Check these binders—every single bank routing number and forged signature matches the digital payload exactly.”
