Chapter 7
Brianna hadn't known.
My brother had told her I was ruining their honeymoon out of jealousy.
Not that my daughter had almost died.
Not that they'd tried to use my identity.
Just that I was being difficult.
I called her.
She answered immediately.
Her first words were, "Oh my God. Is Layla okay?"
I felt my throat tighten.
Because those six words were more concern than my entire family had shown in a week.
"She's home," I said. "She's getting better."
Brianna started crying.
She told me Jason had said Layla was home with a mild cold.
He'd also told her the five-thousand-dollar contribution had been my wedding gift.
I explained everything.
The ICU.
The unanswered messages.
The eighteen-thousand-dollar loan application.
My father's threat.
The hospital confrontation.
By the time I finished, Brianna had gone completely silent.
Then she whispered, "He told me you begged to be involved in the honeymoon planning."
I almost laughed.
"Brianna, I haven't booked a vacation for myself in four years."
She took a shaky breath.
"Please send me whatever you have."
I hesitated.
Then I sent her screenshots of the messages that directly involved Jason and the loan.
And the voicemail.
Ten minutes later, she called me back.
Her voice was completely different.
Cold.
Controlled.
"Thank you," she said.
"For what?"
"For telling me before I made the biggest mistake of my life."
The next forty-eight hours were extraordinary.
Brianna canceled the Bora Bora trip.
She discovered Jason had put several wedding expenses on credit cards he'd never mentioned.
The twelve hundred dollars I'd given him for the venue?
There had never been an emergency deadline.
Brianna had paid the venue balance weeks earlier.
Jason had told her the money was for equipment he needed at work.
He had told me it was for the wedding.
And according to Brianna, the money had actually gone toward deposits for an upgraded honeymoon package.
When she confronted him, he blamed me.
Of course he did.
He said I was trying to sabotage their marriage.
He said I'd always resented his happiness.
He said I was mentally unstable because of the stress of raising a child alone.
But Brianna wasn't stupid.
She asked him one simple question.
"Did you try to take out a loan using your sister's identity without her permission?"
Jason refused to answer directly.
Then he admitted he knew Dad had started the application.