PART4

He looked toward the staircase again.

Then he leaned closer.

“I need money.”

I stared at him.

“How much?”

He hesitated.

“Twenty thousand dollars.”

For a moment, I couldn’t speak.

Twenty thousand dollars.

He had been living in my house for two years without paying rent, driving my SUV, and using my credit card.

Now he wanted another twenty thousand dollars.

“Why?” I finally asked.

He looked uncomfortable.

“I have a debt.”

“What kind of debt?”

“Business debt.”

“You told me your business was doing well.”

“It is.”

“Then why do you need twenty thousand dollars?”

He looked down at the floor.

“It’s not that simple.”

I took a step back.

“Daniel, I am not giving you money.”

His face tightened.

“Mom, you don’t understand. If I don’t pay it by Friday, things could get really bad.”

“What does that mean?”

He didn’t answer immediately.

Then he whispered:

“I borrowed money from someone. Someone I shouldn’t have borrowed from.”

I felt a chill run down my back.

“Who?”

Before he could answer, Marissa appeared at the top of the stairs.

“Daniel?”

He turned quickly.

“What?”

“Are you coming upstairs?”

“Give me a minute.”

She looked at me, then at him.

“What are you two talking about?”

“Nothing,” Daniel replied.

Marissa slowly descended the staircase.

“Daniel, I told you not to discuss that with her.”

I looked between them.

“Discuss what?”

Neither answered.

Then Marissa reached the bottom step, walked toward the dining table, and placed her phone beside the folder containing my financial records.

She looked directly at me.

“Since you want everything to be about money, Clara, perhaps we should talk about the money you already owe us.”

I stared at her.

“Excuse me?”

She unlocked her phone and turned the screen toward me.

There was a photograph of a document.

A document bearing my name.

My signature.

And a date from six months earlier.

I leaned closer.

My heart began beating faster.

Because I had never seen that document before.

And whatever Daniel and Marissa had planned, I suddenly realized that asking them to leave might have uncovered something far more serious than an ungrateful family.

Someone had been using my name without my knowledge.

I stared at the photograph on Marissa’s phone.

For several seconds, I couldn’t understand what I was looking at.

It was a loan agreement.

My full legal name appeared at the top of the document.

Clara Bennett.

Below it was an address, a loan amount, and a signature that looked almost exactly like mine.

I slowly lifted my eyes toward Daniel.

“What is this?”

He didn’t answer.

Marissa crossed her arms.

“It’s a financial agreement. Daniel needed some assistance, and you agreed to help him.”

“I did no such thing.”

She gave a small, humorless laugh.

“Your signature is right there.”

I reached for the phone.

She pulled it slightly away.

“Let me see it.”

After a moment, she placed the phone on the table.

I enlarged the photograph.

The document showed a loan of $38,000, supposedly guaranteed by me.

The date was six months earlier.

I read the signature again.

The handwriting was similar to mine.

The capital C.

The way I connected the letters in Bennett.

Even the little mark I sometimes made at the end of my last name.

But I knew with absolute certainty that I had never signed it.

“Daniel,” I said quietly. “Did you put my name on this document?”

He looked at the floor.

Marissa answered for him.

“He didn’t have much choice.”

I turned toward her.

“I’m asking my son.”

Daniel finally looked up.

“Mom, I was going to explain everything.”

“Then explain it.”

He pulled out a chair and sat down.

His face looked tired.

“Last year, I started a small investment project with a friend. It was supposed to be a short-term opportunity. I put money into it, and then things went wrong.”

“How much money?”

He rubbed his forehead.

“About twenty-five thousand.”

“And you borrowed another thirty-eight thousand?”

“Not all of it was for the investment.”

I looked at him.

“Then where did the money go?”

He didn’t answer.

Marissa stepped forward.

“We had expenses, Clara. School fees, credit cards, vacations, medical bills. You know how expensive everything is.”

I almost couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

“You borrowed money using my name to pay for vacations?”

She rolled her eyes.

“That’s not what happened.”

I looked back at Daniel.

“Did you forge my signature?”

He remained silent.

That silence told me more than any explanation could.

I picked up my phone.

“I am calling the lender.”

Daniel immediately stood.

“Mom, don’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“Because we can work this out privately.”

“How?”

“I’ll make payments.”

“With what money?”

He had no answer.

Marissa suddenly raised her voice.

“You’re making this much bigger than it needs to be. You’re his mother. You should want to help him.”

I looked at her.

“Helping someone does not mean allowing them to commit fraud in my name.”

Daniel walked around the table.

“Mom, please. I know I made a mistake.”

I stared at him.

“A mistake is forgetting to pay a bill. A mistake is buying something you cannot afford. Signing your mother’s name on a loan agreement without her permission is something entirely different.”

His eyes filled with tears.

“I’m sorry.”

I wanted to believe him.

He was still my son.

I remembered him as a little boy who used to run into the kitchen after school, asking whether I had made his favorite cookies.

I remembered sitting beside him when he had a fever.

I remembered the day his father taught him to ride a bicycle.

But the man standing in front of me was not that little boy.

He was a thirty-six-year-old man who had made choices and expected his mother to pay for them.

“I need you to leave my house,” I said.

Daniel lowered his head.

Marissa looked furious.

“Fine. But if you report this, don’t expect us to ever forgive you.”

I picked up the phone.

“Forgiveness is not the issue anymore.”

That night, I barely slept.

I sat in my bedroom with the loan agreement photograph open on my laptop.

I searched through my files for any document connected to the date on the agreement.

Nothing.

Then I remembered something.

Six months earlier, Daniel had asked to borrow my identification card.

He said he needed it to help me update some paperwork related to the vehicle insurance.

CONTINUE FOR NEXT PART5…