Daniel kept calling his mother the queen of the evening. Nina smiled and said she had dressed up only for her dear guests. Marina sat beside her husband and quietly added up the numbers in her head.
The dress, the jewelry, the salon appointment. The private room at the restaurant for thirty people had to cost a good amount too. Marina wanted to believe Nina had saved up, or that friends had chipped in, or that there was some explanation that made sense.
But after that birthday dinner, her doubts only grew. She started noticing things she had once brushed aside. A large new flat-screen TV in Nina’s living room was explained away as a “fantastic sale.”
The expensive leather shoes had supposedly been picked up for next to nothing at clearance. A pair of gold earrings with emerald stones had come, according to Nina, from an old friend in the jewelry business. Each item had a plausible story attached to it. Taken together, they painted a different picture.
Marina tried asking Daniel, carefully, how his mother could afford all these things while constantly needing help with bills and medication. He waved her off and said his mother knew how to save. Then he added, with a tone Marina didn’t miss, that not everyone spent money carelessly.
The accusation stung because Marina had never been careless with money. She always knew exactly where every dollar went. Or at least she thought she did—until one day in May.
She had spent the day buried in a major work project and left her phone on silent. That evening, when she finally checked it, she saw five missed calls from Daniel and three messages marked urgent.
He wanted her to call right away. According to the texts, Nina’s gas had been shut off and she needed money immediately. Marina called him back at once. Daniel answered in a strained voice and said his mother needed $145 right away to restore service.
Marina asked how a gas bill in a small apartment could possibly be that high. Daniel stumbled through an explanation about his mother not understanding the bills and letting things get out of hand.
The amount sounded absurd to Marina. She said she would help, but asked him to send a photo of the bill so she could pay the utility company directly. There was a long pause. In the background, she could hear muffled whispering.
Daniel tried to talk her out of it and asked her to just send the money to his mother’s account. Marina held firm. No bill, no money. After another awkward silence and more whispering, he ended the call.
Half an hour later, he called back with a brand-new story. It turned out the gas had not been shut off after all. Nina had simply gotten confused. What she really needed was the exact same amount—$145—for a new pair of glasses.
The coincidence was too neat. Marina said her funds were tied up and declined. Daniel took offense and gave her the silent treatment for three days. But that ridiculous performance pushed her to take a closer look at all of her finances.
One evening in June, she opened her banking app before buying a new laptop and started scrolling through her recent transactions. Then she froze. On June 16, there had been a $170 charge at a high-end cosmetics store.
She knew for a fact that on that date she had been out of town on business. Scrolling farther, she found a $240 cash withdrawal from an ATM on the same street where Nina lived. The pieces started falling into place in a way that made her stomach turn.
On June 11, another $320 had been spent at a jewelry store, though Marina hadn’t bought herself jewelry in months. On June 8, there was a $185 purchase at a women’s clothing store that specialized in plus sizes. Marina wore a size four. At that point, there was very little room for doubt…
