The next morning, I took the receipts to my bank. The account numbers were partially hidden, but the transaction references were enough for them to trace the source. The money had come from an old savings account my parents opened in my name when I was a teenager. I had forgotten it existed. Mom had remained an authorized signer and had been moving money from it whenever Garrett fell behind.
Over the previous year, she had sent Megan nearly $5,000 while putting my name in the payment memo. Garrett genuinely believed I had been quietly covering for him. Mom had never told me because, as she eventually admitted, she knew I would refuse. Her explanation was that she was “keeping the peace” and protecting her grandchildren. I reminded her that secretly using money connected to me was not generosity.
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