“Criminally?”
“We have no evidence he knowingly participated.”
I breathed again.
The attorney noticed.
“You can be angry with him without wanting him imprisoned.”
“I know.”
“Good.”
She placed another document in front of me.
“What is this?”
“A preliminary ledger.”
Rows.
Dates.
Amounts.
Descriptions.
Some I recognized.
My school.
My orthodontist.
A summer program.
Then stranger things.
Beneficiary apparel: $4,900.
I laughed.
“I don’t own anything worth that.”
“Correct.”
Beneficiary extracurricular travel: $8,211.
“Where did I go?”
“Your stepfamily traveled to Aspen.”
I stared.
“I stayed with my aunt.”
“Yes.”
Another.
Beneficiary educational technology: $6,340.
I owned a three-year-old laptop my father had bought for my birthday.
The attorney said:
“Three tablets and two gaming systems were included.”
My stepbrother had a gaming room.
I put the paper down.
“I don’t want to read more.”
“Then we stop.”
That was it.
No lecture.
No “you need to understand.”
She closed the folder.
I asked:
“What about the house?”
“What about it?”
“Can I kick them out?”
The question came from anger.
She knew.
“Eventually you will have substantial authority over the property.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
She folded her hands.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because you are fourteen.”
“That’s unfair.”
“Probably.”
I almost smiled.
She continued.
“Your father’s right of occupancy still exists.”
“His marriage and your stepfamily’s residency are separate issues.”
“Courts also care about children who had no role in financial misconduct.”
I thought of my stepsister outside my door.
My stepbrother’s bare feet.
“I don’t want them kicked out.”
“Good.”
“What about her?”
“Your stepmother?”
“Yes.”
“That becomes a family-law and potentially criminal issue.”
I looked at the archival box.
“Did my mother know this would happen?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because she trusted your father too.”
That hurt.
She added:
“But she understood that people change.”
“That is why she used a professional co-trustee.”
“Then why didn’t they catch it sooner?”
A fair question.
The attorney’s face tightened.
“Because the system failed too.”
She did not hide behind legal language.
“The trust company reviewed documentation.”
“The documentation was false but professionally prepared.”
“Your father’s signature carried weight.”
“Transactions individually looked plausible.”
“The pattern became visible when several spending categories rose sharply.”
“So if she hadn’t spent so much…”
“It might have continued longer.”
I thought about the shopping bags downstairs.