My eyes widened.
“What?”
Daniel nodded.
“Four hundred dollars.”
I looked at Valentina.
She looked just as confused.
“Who took it?”
Daniel turned the phone toward the screen.
“Mom did.”
Renata immediately shook her head.
“That’s a lie!”
“I have the transfer record.”
“You gave me permission!”
“I never did.”
Victor stood up.
“Daniel, this is ridiculous.”
“No,” Daniel said quietly. “What’s ridiculous is that you took money from your granddaughter and then convinced her she owed you more.”
Renata’s voice rose.
“I didn’t steal anything! That money was supposed to help Mateo!”
“Mateo is your grandson too.”
“He needed it!”
“So you took it from a nine-year-old?”
Renata’s mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
Then I remembered something.
A few weeks earlier, Valentina had asked me why Grandma Renata needed her birthday money.
I’d assumed she was talking about a small gift.
I hadn’t thought twice about it.
Now I understood why she’d looked so uncomfortable.
Daniel’s voice softened.
“Mom, how much money have you asked her for?”
Renata looked away.
“Nothing.”
“Wrong answer.”
He tapped his screen.
“I found three transfers.”
My hand went to my mouth.
Three.
Not one.
Three.
The first was four hundred dollars.
The second was two hundred and fifty.
The third was five hundred.
More than a thousand dollars had disappeared from a child’s savings account.
And apparently, Valentina had been made to feel guilty about every dollar.
Renata finally whispered,
“We were going through a difficult time.”
