Chapter 2

I switched off the livestream light.

"Give Grandma's bank card back."

My mother slapped the card down on the table.

"I took the card. Hudson's getting married, and it's only right for Grandma to help her grandson out. You're a granddaughter who'll marry out sooner or later. Who are you to have a say?"

Grandma's mouth trembled, she was so upset.

"I never gave it away—"

My mother pushed her back down.

"It's only sixty-eight thousand. And going forward it's Hudson who'll be looking after you in your old age."

Grandma's medication was down to a single day's supply. I fronted the cost myself, then, keeping to the old bookkeeping method, transferred six hundred eighty dollars back into the eldercare account.

Five minutes later, Hudson posted a transfer screenshot in the family group chat, with the note cropped out.

【Grandma's money barely lands and she moves it out faster than anyone.】

I pulled up the full statement. All I had to do was send it, and it would at least explain those six hundred eighty dollars. But my finger hovered over the send button, and I backed out again.

If they were bold enough to build a case out of one medication payment, they wouldn't have prepared just one screenshot.

By the time I got back from buying the medicine, the living room was packed with relatives and neighbors.

My mother pointed at me and wept.

"Eight years! We thought she was worn out caring for the old woman. Turns out she was lying on top of her, sucking her dry!"

Hudson grabbed my laptop bag and dumped everything onto the floor, the charger cable, the medical records, the medicine boxes. April held up her phone, the lens right against my face. My father threw open the wardrobe and flung out my clothes one by one.

My mother fished the bank card out of my coat.

"Found it!"

"A thief in the family is the hardest to guard against."

"No wonder she wouldn't leave for eight years."

Inside her room, Grandma pounded the bed rail with everything she had.

"It wasn't Freda, it was Olive Lambert who took it!"

The more frantic she got, the less she could get the words out, and not a single person in the living room turned to look.

My mother gripped the card, and her eyes slid away from mine. In that moment I understood, they'd known all along exactly where this card was going to be "found."

My father brought out Grandma's ID and bankbook, then spread a blank sheet of paper on the table.

"Mom, press your thumbprint here. From now on Hudson will keep everything safe."

Grandma balled her hand into a fist, and my mother pried her fingers open one by one.

I reached out and stopped her.

"A thumbprint on a blank page. What are you planning to fill in above it?"

My father shoved me hard. My lower back hit the corner of the table, glass drove into my palm, and blood welled up fast between my fingers.

He only tucked the paper behind his back.

"A little cut, and you want to shake down your own father?"

Hudson crouched down in front of me.

"Anthem's background check weighs family testimony most of all. Talk out of turn, and I'll hand in the fact that you stole from the eldercare fund. I'll make sure no one in this whole eldercare industry dares to hire you."

When he finished, he kicked the scattered medicine boxes a little farther out of my reach.

I bound up the wound, walked into the kitchen, and opened the home security dashboard.

On the screen, my mother tucked the bank card into my coat, my father forced Grandma's thumbprint, and Hudson stood outside the door coaching April on how to film the "catch the thief" livestream.

I backed it up section by section, then logged into the group's review system.

In Hudson's application package, besides the stolen journals, there was a 《Sole Support-Obligation Statement》. Grandma's thumbprint was bright red, dated today.

I didn't reject it. I only clicked "reinforced audit."

A cheer went up from the living room right away.

Hudson had gotten the message that he'd passed the final interview.

"Once I'm regional manager, whoever wants a subsidized apartment in this community, whoever wants to land a project, they'll all have to answer to me."

My father laughed and clapped him on the shoulder.

"First thing, cancel your sister's caregiving status. An outsider, she's not getting a single cent out of the Pruitt family."