Chapter 12 - THE RECORDING
Mia set the phone on the kitchen table. It took three tries to unlock it; the screen was cracked, and half the numbers barely responded.
The recording was dated two weeks earlier.
We heard Denise speaking to someone named Lauren. At first they talked about ordinary things. Then Lauren asked whether I’d chosen a college.
“She’s waiting on Westbridge,” Denise said in the recording. “If she gets in, she’ll leave and Paul will spend every spare dollar helping her.”
“That’s his daughter,” Lauren replied.
“He’s my husband. Mia needs help too.”
There was a pause. Then Denise said, “I’ll handle Westbridge if I have to.”
Dad stopped the recording.
Mia rubbed her hands together. “I heard part of that call when she made it. I told myself she was just mad.”
“You knew she might interfere,” I said.
“I didn’t know about the form until yesterday.”
“But you knew enough to ask.”
She nodded. “Yes.”
I wanted her to defend herself so I could get angrier. She didn’t.
Dad emailed the file to himself and to Officer Harris. Then he asked Mia to leave the phone with him.
That evening, I called Ms. Porter at Westbridge. She walked me through an identity statement and a new confirmation form. I signed it while Rebecca watched. Ms. Porter said the school would review the false withdrawal and contact me with a final decision.
“When?” I asked.
“Tomorrow afternoon, I hope.”
I tried to sleep. Instead, I kept seeing my dress on the floor. I thought about the programs I’d missed and wondered what else I might have done if someone had simply handed me my mail.
At 11:36 p.m., Dad knocked on my door.
“There’s one more thing you should see.”
He showed me an email from the scholarship office, sent an hour earlier.
May you like
Someone had contacted Westbridge again, claiming I was being pressured by my family to accept the offer. The sender requested a private call with the scholarship committee.
The email address used my full name.
