Chapter 4 - THE THIRD PERSON IN THE PLAN
I called the bank fraud line before anyone could speak.
The declined $7,200 charge came from a travel agency called Sunhaven Premier Travel.
I had never heard of it.
The agent froze my card immediately.
Then she read two earlier transactions I had overlooked.
$1,150.
$2,400.
Both from Sunhaven.
Both within the previous month.
My hands went cold.
“What were they for?”
“We can dispute them, but the merchant would need to provide details.”
Dad whispered, “Sunhaven?”
I looked at him.
“You know it?”
His face tightened.
“That’s where Deborah booked our anniversary trip last year.”
Every eye turned toward her.
She looked insulted.
“Thousands of people use travel agencies.”
Maybe.
But not all of them had my card.
I searched the business online.
Sunhaven Premier Travel.
Owner:
Patricia Lang.
The name meant nothing to me.
It meant something to Deborah.
I watched her face.
“Who’s Patricia?”
“My friend.”
Of course.
“How close?”
“She’s in my book club.”
Melissa whispered, “Mom…”
Deborah snapped.
“Stop acting like I murdered someone.”
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“You forged my signature, stole my booking, accessed my credit card, and involved someone else.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Then call Patricia.”
“No.”
That was answer enough.
Dad grabbed his phone.
“I will.”
Deborah tried to stop him.
He stepped away.
Patricia answered on the second ring.
Dad put her on speaker.
“Pat, what did you charge to my daughter’s card?”
Silence.
Then:
“Deborah said Clara approved it.”
My name is Clara Bennett.
Apparently everyone had been using my approval except me.
“What did she approve?” I asked.
Patricia went quiet.
Then:
“A second cabin.”
My stomach tightened.
“For whom?”
“Your father and Deborah.”
Dad looked stunned.
“What?”
Patricia continued nervously.
“And one interior cabin for Melissa.”
My father sat down.
Deborah had not merely replaced Owen and Lily.
She had expanded the trip.
Using my money.
“How much total?”
Patricia hesitated.
“About ten thousand seven hundred fifty.”
I closed my eyes.
The $4,862 excursion package.
The earlier charges.
The declined $7,200 payment.
They had been turning my twenty-thousand-dollar vacation into a subsidized extended-family cruise.
Dad looked at his wife.
“You told me you paid for our cabin.”
“I was going to.”
“With what?”
She had no answer.
Then Patricia said something stranger.
“Deborah, did you not tell them?”
Deborah’s entire face changed.
“Patricia.”
“What?”
“Stop talking.”
I looked at my father.
He heard it too.
“What didn’t she tell us?”
Patricia swallowed audibly.
Then said:
“She told me Clara had agreed to pay because she owed Melissa.”
I laughed.
“Owed her for what?”
Patricia went silent.
Deborah stared at the floor.
Melissa whispered:
“Mom, what did you tell her?”
Patricia finally answered.
“She said Clara had taken money that belonged to Melissa after their mother died.”
The room went completely still.
Our mother?
Melissa and I did not have the same mother.
May you like
And my biological mother had died twelve years earlier.
Deborah had been telling people I stole an inheritance from my half-sister that never belonged to her in the first place.
