Chapter 4 - Empty Numbers
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My fingers trembled as I typed in my passcode and opened the mobile banking app for the joint high-yield savings account Brandon and I had shared for six years. We called it "our future fund." It was where we deposited my overtime bonuses, his quarterly commissions, and every spare dollar we made to eventually buy a house in the suburbs.
I refreshed the screen.
The screen loaded, showing the green total at the top of the dashboard.
Balance: $1,342.18
My throat closed up. My vision blurred.
"Claire..." I gasped, my knuckles turning white as I squeezed the phone. "The money is gone."
There was a heavy, suffocating silence on the other end of the line.
"How much is left?" Claire asked quietly.
"Just over thirteen hundred dollars," I rasped out, my chest pounding so hard I thought my ribs would snap. "Claire, there was nearly one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars in that account last month!"
"Take screenshots immediately," Claire ordered, her tone shifting into pure, tactical legal authority. "Download the complete PDF transaction history for the last twelve months and email them to my private server. Right now!"
I hung up and sat down heavily on the edge of the hotel bed. My mother woke up from the movement, rubbing her tired eyes.
"Elena? What's wrong, honey?" she asked softly.
I couldn't even form the words. I looked at the dark screen of my phone as a chilling realization washed over my entire body.
The ten thousand five hundred dollars Brandon had accused my mother of stealing from his desk drawer yesterday afternoon... it wasn't about missing cash at all.
It was a staged argument. It was a manufactured crisis designed to provoke me, drive a wedge between my mother and me, and kick her out of the house before I ever discovered what he had been doing behind my back.
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He had fabricated the entire scene with the blue vase just to create a distraction.
And while I was carrying meat home for dinner, nearly one hundred and seventy thousand dollars of my blood, sweat, and tears had vanished into thin air.
