For 4 years, I picked up my sister’s kids from school for free. One day I was 37 minutes late, and she screamed at me in front of them: “Not with my children!” Then she shoved me out of her house. I stopped picking them up. 11 days later, the school called me. Then my sister called 6 times. I turned my phone face down.

The total was $4,750.

Not a cent had remained in my account.

I opened my phone and searched our messages.

There they were.

April:

*“Oops! Sent you the dance studio payment by mistake. Can you send it back?”*

May:

*“Wrong contact again. Please return it!”*

June:

*“This banking app hates me. Sorry! Send it back.”*

Every transfer had been accompanied by a message requesting repayment.

I’d never questioned it because Nicole was always making mistakes with electronic payments.

At least, that was what she’d led everyone to believe.

Now I understood.

If someone examined only Nicole’s account, they’d see regular childcare payments leaving her bank.

And she’d already provided screenshots of those transfers as evidence.

But my records told the other half of the story.

**She hadn’t been paying me. She’d been manufacturing proof that she had.**

I asked Hector to print certified copies of the transactions.