“No.”
Mr. Ellis had been quietly taking notes. Now he looked up.
“Did you ever share your email password with anyone?”
Daniel shook his head.
“Not intentionally.”
“That’s not the same as no,” Mr. Ellis said.
Daniel rubbed his forehead.
“Your stepdaughters used my computer sometimes. They knew the password.”
Mom’s expression changed.
“My girls?”
“They used it for school. And sometimes for shopping. I changed the password last year.”
“Did you tell them about the account?” I asked.
“No.”
“Did they know about Grandma’s money?”
Daniel looked at Mom.
“She told them.”
Mom’s lips parted.
“I mentioned that your grandmother had set money aside for you. They knew you were going to nursing school. They knew you needed tuition.”
“They were children,” Mom said.
“They were teenagers,” Daniel replied. “Old enough to understand more than we thought.”
I felt a strange mixture of anger and reluctance. The girls had never treated me badly. They had been polite during holidays and shy when I tried to speak with them. I could not imagine either of them deliberately taking money from me.
“Could they have opened an account using your email?” I asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Would they have known my Social Security number?”
Mom flinched.
“I kept copies of family documents in a drawer at home,” she said. “Birth certificates, insurance forms, school records.”
“Who had access?”
“Everyone, technically.”
The answer settled over us.
The mystery no longer pointed cleanly toward one person. It had widened into a chain of carelessness, secrecy, and decisions made without me.
Mr. Ellis closed his folder.
“We are not going to accuse anyone here,” he said. “We will preserve the evidence and let the bank investigate. The laptop should not be touched again.”
I looked at the envelope.
“What about this?”
“Open it,” he said.
I slid one finger beneath the flap.
Inside was a letter, several photocopied bank forms, and a small key attached to a paper tag.
The tag read: **Safety deposit box—Branch 7.**
I unfolded Grandma’s letter.
My precious girl,
If you are reading this, then the account has become more complicated than I hoped. I am sorry. I wanted to give you a clean beginning, not another burden to carry.
Your mother did not steal your education money. She made mistakes, and some of those mistakes were serious, but she helped me when I was too frightened to face the bank alone. I asked her to move the money temporarily because I believed someone had discovered the account.
