Chapter 6 - The Missing Money
That night Derrick opened every bank account he and Monique shared.
He did not ask permission.
The trust that normally made permission unnecessary was already gone.
Emergency savings: $38,412 eight months earlier.
Current balance: $21,963.
Derrick stared at the numbers.
He refreshed the page.
Same balance.
Sixteen thousand four hundred forty-nine dollars gone.
Not sixty-six hundred.
Not even the additional forty-eight hundred.
More.
Monique sat across from him.
Renee had gone home after midnight, promising to return the next morning.
Jaylen remained upstairs without his phone.
Derrick turned the laptop toward Monique.
“Explain.”
She looked.
Her face collapsed.
“Derrick.”
“Explain.”
Some payments were obvious.
ELLIS ACADEMIC CONSULTING.
$1,200.
$1,200.
$1,400.
$2,800.
$4,800.
Others were less clear.
RIDGELINE SCHOOL DISTRICT.
$1,186.
SUMMIT STUDENT PROGRAM.
$2,250.
A transfer marked simply:
M.H.
$1,613.
Derrick tapped the screen.
“What is that?”
Monique’s eyes filled.
“Don’t.”
“What is M.H.?”
She covered her face.
“Monique.”
“It’s nothing.”
“Sixteen hundred dollars is not nothing.”
She whispered:
“It went back.”
“What went back?”
No answer.
Derrick stood.
“What did you pay for?”
Monique looked toward the stairs.
“Keep your voice down.”
“Why?”
“Because he can hear us.”
“Good.”
“No.”
She stood too.
“He does not need to hear everything wrong with this family.”
Derrick stared at her.
“Apparently he already knows more than I do.”
The sentence landed hard.
Monique sat again.
“M.H. was Mrs. Harris.”
“Who?”
“The mother of the boy whose Chromebook Jaylen broke.”
“The school charged us for that.”
“That wasn’t everything.”
Derrick waited.
“After the Chromebook incident, Jaylen posted a video.”
“What video?”
Monique’s face twisted with shame.
“He recorded Marcus Harris crying.”
Derrick went still.
“Why?”
“They had been arguing.”
“What did he post?”
“A clip.”
“Doing what?”
“Mocking him.”
Derrick slowly sat.
The boy he knew did not humiliate people for entertainment.
Or perhaps the boy he knew was several months out of date.
“How bad?”
“Bad enough that Marcus stopped coming to school for three days.”
Derrick stared at her.
“And the sixteen hundred?”
“Mrs. Harris asked us to pay for counseling.”
Derrick almost laughed from disbelief.
“She asked us?”
“I offered.”
“And then you didn’t tell me.”
“I was ashamed.”
“You?”
Monique flinched.
Derrick regretted the word immediately.
But not enough to take it back.
“You were ashamed,” he repeated. “So you paid people until the problem disappeared.”
“It didn’t disappear.”
“You made sure I didn’t see it.”
“He apologized.”
“To Marcus?”
“Yes.”
“Did he mean it?”
Monique said nothing.
Derrick closed the laptop.
“Do you realize what you’ve done?”
She looked at him.
“You turned me into a guest in my own son’s life.”
“That is not fair.”
“I knew nothing.”
“You were working.”
“I came home every night.”
“You were stressed about the company.”
“So you decided I couldn’t handle being his father?”
“No.”
“That is exactly what you decided.”
Monique stood.
“And what about you?”
Derrick frowned.
“What about me?”
“You want honesty?”
“Yes.”
“Fine.”
She walked to a drawer near the refrigerator.
Removed an envelope.
Dropped it in front of him.
A bank notice.
Home equity line of credit.
Balance: $18,750.
Derrick’s face changed.
Monique watched him.
“You want to talk about secret money?”
Derrick did not touch the paper.
“How did you get that?”
“It came in the mail.”
“That’s business debt.”
“It’s attached to our house.”
“I told you I might use the line.”
“You said five thousand.”
“I needed more.”
“When?”
“June.”
“How much?”
“Twenty thousand.”
Monique laughed.
There was no humor in it.
“You borrowed twenty thousand dollars against our house without telling me.”
“To cover payroll.”
“And you’re standing here judging me?”
“I’m judging what you did with Jaylen.”
“And I’m judging what you did to us.”
“It’s different.”
“Of course you think it’s different.”
“It kept twelve people employed.”
“And my money was trying to keep our son from failing.”
“By helping him cheat.”
“I didn’t know.”
“Eventually you knew enough.”
Monique’s eyes burned.
“And eventually you knew your business couldn’t cover payroll.”
They stared at each other.
For eighteen years, their marriage had operated on an unspoken belief:
Whatever happened outside, they were a team.
Now each had discovered the other had been making decisions alone.
Upstairs, Jaylen sat on the floor beside the vent.
Listening.
Every sentence confirmed what he had suspected.
Adults hid things.
Adults bent rules.
Adults justified themselves.
The only difference was that they expected children to call it honesty when they did not.
He reached under his mattress.
Pulled out an old phone.
Monique believed she had taken it away months earlier.
Jaylen turned it on.
Three messages appeared.
The newest was from Cameron Ellis.
Your parents know too much. Delete our chat.
Jaylen smiled bitterly.
Then typed:
Too late.
Another message arrived immediately.
Then don’t tell them who gave me Cooper’s materials.
Jaylen stared at the screen.
Because that was the secret neither parent knew.
Cameron Ellis had not stolen Ms. Cooper’s answer key.
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Someone inside the school had sold it to him.
And Jaylen knew exactly who.
