The bank statements arrived four days before the christening. There were two transfers I couldn’t place. One had my mother-in-law’s name attached to it, and the other had been sent to an account I’d never seen before. I called the bank and asked whether the transfers had been made in person or online. The woman checked the records and said both had been authorized electronically. Then she gave me the dates. The first was three days after I gave my sister-in-law the $9,000. The second was the morning my daughter officially deferred university.
I asked my sister-in-law about it privately. She immediately said the money had nothing to do with her. I reminded her that she’d told me she needed every dollar for her divorce lawyer, and that I’d emptied the savings I’d put aside for my daughter’s university because she promised she’d repay me. She said I was being dramatic and that family didn’t keep receipts. Then I showed her the statement. She stared at the transfer for a long time before saying she didn’t recognize the account. I asked why my mother-in-law’s name appeared beside it. She said, “Because she told me to use it.” That was the first time either of them had admitted my mother-in-law knew where the money went.
The next morning I called the bank again and asked for the destination account information. It wasn’t my sister-in-law’s account. It belonged to a law office. I called the office and asked whether they’d received a payment from my account. The receptionist checked and said yes — but it wasn’t for my sister-in-law’s divorce. It was a retainer for someone else. I asked whose case it was. She wouldn’t give me details, but she said the payment had been made by a woman with my mother-in-law’s name. Then she added that another payment was scheduled for the following Monday. The christening is Sunday. And the person whose legal bill my mother-in-law is paying is someone I have never met.
