The apartment.
The credit application.
The letters.
The spreadsheet.
The promotion.
Everything suddenly looked different.
This wasn’t just about Nathan hiding his debt anymore.
Someone had been using my identity in ways I didn’t fully understand.
And if the records were accurate…
the next thing I discovered could change everything.
Nathan’s voice came through the phone again.
“Sofia?”
“Yes?”
“I need you to promise me something.”
“What?”
“Don’t tell Mom.”
I froze.
“Why?”
He didn’t answer.
“Nathan, why can’t your mother know?”
His voice dropped to a whisper.
“Because she already knows.”
My heart stopped.
“What does she know?”
Silence.
Then he said:
“She knew about the accounts.”
I closed my eyes.
The room seemed to disappear around me.
Margaret hadn’t simply known about Nathan’s debt.
She might have known that my information was being used.
I opened the folder in front of me.
The spreadsheet.
The debt statements.
The credit inquiries.
The message from Rachel.
And suddenly, one question became more important than all the others.
Why had Margaret been so desperate to make me quit my job… if she already knew my income was the thing keeping their entire financial mess alive?
I looked at the clock.
Then at the folder.
Then at the message from Rachel.
I realized I had spent eighteen months asking the wrong question.
I had been asking:
“How much money did Nathan take?”
Now I needed to know:
“What did Margaret and Nathan plan to do with my money once I stopped asking questions?”
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