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?”

Having said her piece, Susan turned to Summer for her two cents.

After much internal deliberation, Summer gave in with a nod. “Fine, I guess.”

As it turned out, Summer held out on the twenty-grand proposal because the payout wasn’t to her expectations.

Susan shifted her gaze to me, gesturing for me to wire Summer the funds.

With her reputation on the line, Susan made me take responsibility for something that never happened and demanded that I transfer money to Summer.

I smirked in rage.

Rolling her eyes, Summer urged, “Well, don’t just stand there. Send the money already.”

I locked eyes with Susan. “You claimed that I’ve pocketed over two hundred thousand dollars in supposed commissions from running errands for you. Show me the proof.”

Susan looked away. “Like I told you, the chat logs are long gone. How am I supposed to show you?”

She murmured in my ear, “Just transfer Summer the money. Don’t start a family drama over the holidays, or the family is going to have a field day.

“I’ll clear the air with Summer back home later. She’ll return the money then.”

Susan expected me to cave in like I did before when she allegedly paid me the wrong amount by mistake.

However, I stood firm on my ground for once, not taking the fall because she told me so.

If I were to let this slide, the family, as well as the viewers on the livestream, would assume that I had been skimming money off my own mother.

By then, my explanation would fall on deaf ears. Plus, I’d be out of a hundred thousand dollars for nothing.

I raised a brow. “How can you claim that I profited the difference then?”

Since the viewers had no idea what was going on, Kendra typed away to keep them in the loop.

After getting the context, the viewers were convinced that I had been scamming my own mother by overblowing the price tag when purchasing things.

I glanced down at Kendra’s phone, her screen was a blur of insults directed at me by the viewers.

Summer slammed the table and shrieked, “Mom owned up to it. Why are you still stubborn?

“Are you denying the whole thing because Mom said that her phone data is lost?”

The other family members persuaded me to cough the money up.

“Macie, blood is thicker than water. Don’t let a bit of money come between you and your sister.”

I uttered curtly, “It never happened. There’s no way I’m sending her money.”

Summer’s eyes welled up.

Then came a slap across my face.

Susan struck me, leaving my cheek numb.

She tore into me, her finger up my nose, “You’re so selfish! Summer is trying to be nice by putting the whole fiasco to rest for just a hundred grand.

“But you care more about money than family.”

My heart sank.

“Alright then. Didn’t Summer assert that I pocketed the difference when shopping for things on your behalf?

“We can go through the numbers. If I really did profit, I’ll return the amount in full.”

Summer scoffed in disdain. “Wow, aren’t you a saint? The chat logs are lost. How are we supposed to check the transactions?”

I waved my phone. “That’s fine. Mom doesn’t have the data records, but I do.”

Susan went white in the face.

Before I could pull up our chat history, Susan snatched the phone out of my hands amid my distraction and smashed it onto the floor.

“I’d rather keep the transactions private because this argument over money between sisters is getting out of hand.

“Macie, you have no appreciation for what I’m trying to do here.

“You’ve gained a lot more than Summer. Yet you’re clutching to your purse, refusing to share even a dime with her. I’m so disappointed in you.”

Given Susan’s expression and tone, I would’ve been taken in if I hadn’t known the truth.

I retrieved the phone with the cracked screen from the ground. It wouldn’t turn on at all.

Susan silently let out a sigh of relief.

She seemed to think that I couldn’t verify the numbers on my damaged phone.

Calm and collected, I pulled out a stack of papers from my bag.

Susan’s face turned to one of terror when her eyes fell on the documents.