Chapter 7 - MY PARENTS COME TO DEFEND HER
Mom spoke first.
Dad stood behind her.
They arrived together.
Of course.
“Rachel, we need to resolve this before lawyers make it ugly.”
I almost smiled.
“Lawyers didn’t forge my signature.”
Mom flinched.
Dad said:
“No one is defending that.”
“Great. Who did it?”
Silence.
Mom:
“Ashley panicked.”
There.
The first admission.
“Did she copy my signature?”
“She used the authorization you already gave.”
“For one camp.”
“She thought it covered family support.”
“Mom, she is thirty-four.”
“She was desperate.”
“That explains. It doesn’t authorize.”
Dad stepped in.
“She should not have done it.”
“Did you know?”
“About the copied signature?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
Too fast?
Maybe.
“Did you know money was transferring from my branch?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
He looked ashamed.
“Not exact totals.”
“You approved every one.”
“I believed you had consented.”
“Why?”
Mom interrupted.
“Because you always help.”
I laughed.
“So nobody thought to ask?”
“We did not want to embarrass Ashley.”
There it was again.
Protect Ashley from embarrassment.
Charge Rachel.
“What about Noah?”
Dad frowned.
“What about him?”
“His future money was being reduced.”
“The trust still has plenty.”
My father was an engineer.
Numbers mattered to him until family required them not to.
“That is not the point.”
“It matters.”
“No. Consent matters.”
Mom began crying.
“Why are you acting like we robbed a child?”
I looked at her.
“You tell me what to call taking money assigned to one branch with a signature the owner didn’t provide.”
Dad closed his eyes.
Mom whispered:
“We were trying to keep the girls equal.”
Girls.
Emma.
Ava? There was only Emma.
Maybe she meant sisters.
Me and Ashley.
But nothing about us had ever been equal.
Not responsibility.
Not consequences.
Not rescue.
“Equal?” I asked.
Mom nodded.
“You’ve always had more.”
There it was.
Not money.
More competence.
More stability.
May you like
More consequence.
Therefore less right to keep what was mine.
