Then I completed the transfers and canceled the secondary credit card Paige had been living on.

That same afternoon, Paige tried to buy an expensive diamond ring at a mall. The card was declined right in front of her wealthy fiancé, Derek.

Derek called me twenty times. I didn’t pick up once.

At nightfall I went back to the house with a lawyer, the notary, and two police officers — there to keep the peace and head off any confrontation.

My mother sat in the living room surrounded by printed bank statements. Paige’s makeup was streaked with tears, her expensive dress wrinkled.

“You robbed us!” Margaret screamed the second I walked in. “Give me back my house and my money!”