Chapter 5 - The Ambush
The banging on my front door started at 7:00 AM the next morning.
I looked through the peephole. My parents were standing in the hallway, looking furious.
I left the chain on and cracked the door open just an inch.
"What do you want?" I asked.
"Open this door, Eleanor!" my father bellowed, his face red with rage.
"Keep your voice down, or I'm calling the police."
My mother pushed her way to the front. "Ellie, please. Julian left Natalie. She is inconsolable. You have to tell everyone that video was a prank."
I stared at her, completely baffled by her delusion.
"A prank? It was a bank statement, Mom. She committed fraud."
"She is your sister!" my mother shrieked. "You have money! What does it matter if she kept a little extra for her honeymoon?"
"A little extra?" I laughed dryly. "She stole over twenty thousand dollars from me."
My father glared at me through the crack.
"You owe this family, Eleanor. I put a roof over your head for eighteen years. You are going to fix this."
"I don't owe you anything," I said coldly.
"If you don't call Julian and retract those lies, you are dead to us," my father threatened.
"Good," I replied. "I was tired of being the family ATM anyway."
I slammed the door in their faces and locked the deadbolt.
They pounded on the door for another ten minutes before the building superintendent threatened to call the cops.
When they finally left, I sat on my couch, my hands shaking.
My mother had slipped up.
She said Natalie wanted it for her honeymoon. But Natalie and Julian were going on a modest trip to Mexico, paid for by Julian's parents.
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Twenty thousand dollars didn't go to a honeymoon.
I pulled out my laptop again. I needed to know where my money went.
