Chapter 7 - The Family Password
We left the bank with copies of everything and drove straight to a coffee shop two towns over.
Dad sat in the corner booth like a man who had just discovered his house had been built over a sinkhole.
James spread the documents across the table.
“Who knows your banking passwords?”
“No one.”
“Think again.”
Dad rubbed his face.
“Susan knows some. We’ve been married thirty-nine years.”
“Lauren?”
“No.”
I said, “She helped you set up the online trust account, remember?”
Dad looked at me.
Five years earlier, Lauren had spent a weekend “helping Dad modernize everything.” Password managers. Paperless statements. Automatic bills.
He whispered, “Oh God.”
James nodded.
“That doesn’t prove she used it. But it gives her access.”
Dad’s phone rang.
Mom.
He declined it.
It rang again.
He turned it facedown.
Then mine rang.
Lauren.
I answered on speaker.
“What?”
Her voice was cheerful.
Too cheerful.
“Did you enjoy your little field trip?”
Dad’s eyes snapped up.
“How do you know where we are?”
She laughed.
“You really should turn off location sharing before you start acting like spies.”
Dad grabbed his phone and opened the family tracking app.
His face hardened.
“Lauren.”
“Hi, Dad.”
“You stole from the trust.”
“That’s dramatic.”
“Did you forge my authorization?”
Silence.
Then: “I’m not discussing finances over the phone.”
James mouthed, Good.
She was scared.
I leaned toward my phone.
“You forged my signature on the day Emma was born.”
Lauren’s voice changed.
“I didn’t forge anything.”
“Then who did?”
“You should ask your saintly mother.”
Dad closed his eyes.
I said, “Aunt Carol notarized it.”
Lauren swore quietly.
There it was.
A mistake.
She hadn’t known we knew that part.
James caught it too.
“How much did you take?” he asked.
Lauren snapped, “This has nothing to do with you.”
“Your false police report made it my business.”
“I’m not afraid of you.”
“No,” James said. “You’re afraid of paperwork. That’s why you tried to create leverage before Claire found out.”
Lauren went silent.
Then she said, “You think you know what happened last night?”
I looked at James.
“What are you talking about?”
“You think I showed up late because of traffic?”
My stomach tightened.
She continued.
“Ask Mom what she told me to do if James refused to let you sign.”
Dad whispered, “Lauren, don’t.”
“No, Dad. Everybody wants honesty now, right?”
Her voice sharpened.
“She told me to push him.”
I felt cold all over.
“Push him how?”
“Make him angry.”
James’s expression emptied.
Lauren laughed softly.
“She said if he lost his temper in front of everybody, you’d be scared enough about his career to cooperate.”
I couldn’t speak.
Then Lauren added one final sentence.
“And before you blame me for everything, you should know Mom wasn’t the one who came up with the plan.”
Dad stared at the phone.
“Who did?”
Lauren hung up.
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