My mom, Susan, had a habit of sending me to get her shopping.

However, she would always leave out a zero when paying me back what was owed, blaming on her poor eyesight.

I never minded. In fact, I would just cover the cost without another word.

Then, Summer, my sister, had to throw shade.

“Mom sends you money whenever she wants something. You never show us the actual costs, though. I bet you’re making a nice little profit off Mom behind our backs.”

Susan smiled and didn’t even bother to defend me, as if confirming Summer’s accusations.

My heart sank.

Over the years, I had bought her things from major appliances to the smallest groceries, and each time, the payment she sent was short.

Susan would just brush the whole thing off by saying, “Oh, my eyes aren’t what they used to be. My bad.”

I had poured hundreds of thousands into her expenses, only to end up with a reputation as a thief who cheated her own family.

When Susan sent me money for the New Year’s Eve catering, I simply booked food that fit the budget she paid for.

An awkward silence hung over the room. The people at the dinner table simply stared at the food spread with a mix of emotions.

I urged, “Don’t just sit there. Dig in.”

My mother, Susan Bridget, pulled a grimace, holding back an outburst only because others were present.

Swallowing her rage, Susan asked, “Is this all of it? Push the waiting staff to hurry up and serve the rest.”

“This is everything,” I replied indifferently before turning to the rest of the family. “Eat up before the food gets cold.”

“Thud!”

Susan slammed her utensil down, her chest heaving. “We are a table of twelve, and this is what you get us?”

One family member uttered, “Macie, surely, this is a mistake. This isn’t quite the New Year’s Eve spread we usually have.

In previous years, the family would have a feast with plenty of the finest seafood.

This year, the table looked barren, set with only a small buffet. The only thing remotely close to a shellfish blowout was a measly shrimp cocktail.

Of course, the family was confused.

“No, that’s no mistake.” I shook my head.

Infuriated, Susan pressed, “I gave you money to host the New Year’s Eve party, and this is what you’re serving everyone?”

I glanced at the spread and sighed. “Well, this is the best I can do with the limited budget.”

My sister, Summer Fowler, said, her finger up my nose, “Who are you kidding? I know for a fact that Mom wired you four grand for the catering.

“I doubt there’s even five hundred dollars’ worth of food here. Did you pocket the rest?

“I know that you’re always finding excuses to buy things for Mom and overcharge her for the errands, but you’ve gone too far this time.

Following the statement, the family gave me looks filled with judgment.

Susan said, “Normally, I’d let this behavior slide.

“But it’s not every day that we get to be together with family. Do you think this is appropriate?”

My little cousin, Leon, started to throw a tantrum. “Dad, where’s the crab? Didn’t you say we’d be getting a seafood boil?”

Aunt Tania uttered accusingly, “Macie, this kind of behavior is beneath you. How can you do such a thing?”

The rest of the family voiced their criticism.

Susan jumped in. “That’s enough of this fiasco. Go and fix this with the catering, and that’ll be the end of the matter.”

Taking her cue, the other family members told me to keep the peace and restore the spread to its usual standard.

However, I didn’t budget. I replied curtly, “That’s not happening.”

“What do you mean by that?” Susan raised her voice.

I turned to her. “Have you forgotten, Mom?

“You only sent me four hundred bucks, and this is the food all that money could buy.

“I ended up paying the extra out of pocket since the food was a bit out of budget.”

Panic fleeted across Susan’s face as she hadn’t expected me to call her out.

Nevertheless, she was quick to cover her tracks.

Clearing her throat, Susan kept cutting her eyes at me. “What are you talking about? I sent you four grand.”

Summer mocked, “Oh, just give it up. I was there when Mom called you. She told you that the budget was four thousand dollars.

“How can you claim that you got four hundred dollars? That’s quite a ridiculous cut you’re giving yourself.”

With Summer backing Susan up, the family members’ disdain for me grew.

Uncle Sam said furiously, “Macie, how could you steal from your own mother?”

Faced with their skepticism, I pulled up the transaction record.

“See for yourselves. Mom transferred four hundred dollars.”

It was true that Susan called me to give me the budget for the New Year’s Eve party.

However, when the money came, it was only four hundred dollars.

It was Susan’s go-to MO.

She’d play dumb so long as I kept quiet. The moment I spoke up, she’d blame her eyesight for being off by a digit.

Then came the guilt trip.

“So I fell short on the funds? Do you need to go out of your way to point that out? After all the years I’ve cared for you, must you get upset over a bit of money?

“You’re nothing like your sister. You are a thankless brat.”

Sitting next to me, Tania glanced at my phone before looking up and uttering, “Oh, it is just four hundred dollars, Susan.”

Susan let out a strained chuckle in embarrassment. “My eyesight isn’t what it used to be. I must have missed a zero.”

She glared at me. “Why didn’t you say something sooner?”

Susan reluctantly transferred me the rest of the funds, her voice stiff when she said, “There you go. You have the money. Now, get us a decent spread. Don’t keep everybody waiting.”

Before I could get a word in, Summer beat me to it. “What are you doing, Mom?”

She sneered at me and said out loud, “I’m sure you’ve skimmed a fortune off Mom by now.

“So what if she’s short one time? Can’t you just cover the difference for once?

“Are you shaming Mom in front of family because you didn’t get anything out of her?”

Susan gave her a pouting look. “Don’t say such things when we have family around.”

Her supposed criticism was simply confirmation that I was a thief.

I paused for a moment before refunding her the money. I uttered callously, “In that case, you can have the money back. You can fix this with catering, so I don’t get blamed for taking a cut.”

The look on Susan’s face froze.

She knew that the bill for the usual feast would cost over ten thousand dollars.

Susan was one to keep up with appearances before the family.

Since her marriage didn’t work out, she sought fulfillment elsewhere.

Every year, Susan would host a lavish New Year’s Eve party to show the family that she was thriving.

In the past, I’d cover the extra costs out of my own pocket to stroke Susan’s ego, but I was done now.

Summer rolled her eyes and clicked her tongue. “Oh, don’t act like you’re the saint.

“Since you’re talking about returning the money, don’t stop at today’s. You should pay Mom back every penny you stole from her.

“There’s no better time than today with the family here. Let’s do the math and see how much you’ve taken so far.”

Susan pulled a face.

She grabbed Summer’s hand. “We shouldn’t be talking about money at a family get-together. This is a matter behind closed doors.”

“No, I want to settle this right now.” Summer jerked her arm away from Susan violently.

She yelled, her eyes welling up, “I know what’s going on! You asked Macie to run errands to sneak her money!

“I’m your daughter too. Why are you playing favorites?

“We should put everything on the table in front of everyone. Exactly how much have you given her? I expect the same, down to the last penny.”

Everything became clear to me when I saw the begrudging look on Summer’s face.

She wasn’t blowing the whole thing out of proportion to stand up for Susan.

It was all jealousy on her part as she believed Susan had been secretly giving me financial support.

Summer was kicking up a fuss to claim back what was rightfully hers.

Sam came to Summer’s defense. “Susan, you always claim to be fair to both your daughters. Why are you favoring Macie?

“You have my support, Summer. You should fight for your rights!”

The rest of the family sided with Summer as well.

Her well-being was the last thing on their minds, but they weren’t about to miss a front-row seat to the family drama.

Color drained from Susan’s face.

Susan squeezed a smile.

“Don’t encourage Summer. You all know me. I’ve always been fair to my children.

“I’ll tell catering to get us more food.”

Susan rose to her feet to leave the room.

Summer stopped her, her arms spread apart. “Are you trying to run away? Why are you scared?”

Susan chuckled awkwardly. “I swapped my phone recently and lost all my phone data. I don’t have the chat logs anymore. There’s no way to check the transactions even if I wanted to.

“Tell you what. I’ll send you twenty grand—”

Summer cut Susan off with a smirk.

“Don’t try to shut me up with just twenty grand. I bet you funneled much more than that into Macie’s pockets.

“Besides, it’s not about the money. I just want justice.”

With her words striking hard, Sam’s wife, Kendra, led the applause.

“Attagirl!

“Speak up about all the hurt. We got your back.”

Looking thrilled, Kendra held her phone up to capture the spectacle.

She was an influencer with around twenty thousand followers on a reel platform.

It took me a second to catch on to what Kendra was trying to do.

Sure enough, I checked Kendra’s social media handle using my alternative account and found that she was live. Nevertheless, she had only a handful of viewers so far.

Displeased with the low viewer count, Kendra egged the other family members on to stir up more drama.

With the family behind her, Summer straightened her back and felt assured.

She spoke aloud, “You talk about being fair to both of us, but in truth, you favor Macie in secret. Do you think I’m blind?

“Today, I’m finally standing up for myself.”

Susan looked at me pleadingly, expecting me to step in and intervene.

I sighed to myself.

Though Susan’s behavior let me down, this was ultimately a private family matter.

It was one thing to air our dirty laundry in front of family, but the stakes had shifted now that Kendra was livestreaming the conflict.

With Kendra and the family stirring the pot, the live broadcast’s viewer count shot up.

I refused to let our family matters be her clickbait or allow strangers who knew nothing to comment.

Hence, I interrupted Summer abruptly. “We’ll talk at home. For now, let’s just enjoy dinner.”

I gave her a look, but the message went over Summer’s head.

She scoffed. “As a vested party, you have no say here.

“Am I wrong to ask to be treated fairly?

“You and Mom are going to deny the favoritism back home anyway, so it’s in my best interest to get answers right here, right now.”

Susan’s grimace grew as Summer refused to relent.

Struck by a thought, Susan got a grip on herself.

She looked up and met my gaze. “Macie, it’s unfair to Summer that I bankrolled you by having you run errands for me.”

Taken aback, I was ready to question her claim when Susan went on.

“The transaction records are gone. It’s hard to keep track of the different bills anyway.

“But I reckon I have financed you to the tune of two hundred thousand dollars throughout the years.

“Why don’t you just pay Summer a hundred thousand dollars, and we’ll call it a day?”