“I don’t want to get the details wrong. Could you send me everything in a message?”
She laughed.
“Fine. Just don’t improvise.”
Within minutes, the instructions arrived.
Nicole claimed she’d paid me $650 monthly beginning in August 2022.
Then $950 once Ruby began school.
She said the payments were made in cash.
Placed in brown manila envelopes.
Left near the fruit bowl.
She even instructed me to say the five electronic transfers were genuine payments and that I’d never returned them.
Then she sent a document.
A sworn statement intended for the court.
It declared that she had continued paying me for childcare through the current month.
I asked about September, when she’d explicitly forbidden me from seeing the children.
Her response was immediate.
*“Say I paid that month too. You were still available if I needed you.”*
I stared at the message.
She wanted me to claim I’d been paid to care for children she’d ordered me never to approach.
