“Did you find what you were looking for?” I asked quietly.
Vanessa tilted her head. “I found your little safe, actually. Behind that boring map in your office. And since you never got around to changing the combination from Mom’s birthday, which is frankly terrible security, by the way, I took a peek inside.”
Mom and Dad exchanged confused glances. “Vanessa,” Dad said slowly, “what are you talking about?”
“Sarah’s been hiding cash in a safe,” Vanessa said with a laugh. “Well, not cash exactly. Some kind of old bonds or certificates. They looked ancient, probably something Grandpa left her. And since Sarah clearly wasn’t doing anything with them, just letting them sit there gathering dust, I figured she wouldn’t mind if I borrowed them.”
The room went very quiet.
“Borrowed them?” I repeated.
“For the college fund.” She said it like that made everything noble. “Those papers were just sitting in your safe doing nothing. But Derek’s adviser says they can be cashed and reinvested for actual returns. We’re helping you, really. Otherwise, you would just leave them there forever.”
Then she reached into her purse. She had actually brought the folders to dinner like trophies. Vanessa set them on the table between the roast and the serving bowl of mashed potatoes.
“See?” she said. “Just some old government bonds or something. The adviser says they’re probably worth a few thousand. Maybe ten thousand if we’re lucky. Still nothing to sneeze at.”
Derek leaned forward to examine the documents. “These do look legitimate,” he said. “The firm should be able to process them next week.”
“Vanessa,” I said, my voice very calm. “Did you enter my home without my permission?”
“Don’t be dramatic. I used a key.”
“Did you force open my locked office door?”
She waved one hand dismissively. “I learned some things online. It wasn’t that hard.”
“Did you compromise my safe security system?”
“Ther’s an app for everything.” She smiled again. “Honestly, Sarah, if you’re going to keep valuables, you need better protection. Anyone could have gotten in there.”
I looked at my parents. Dad was frowning now, starting to realize that this might be more serious than Vanessa was making it sound. Mom still looked confused, caught between the daughter she always protected and the daughter she never bothered to understand.
“You entered a secured residence,” I said to Vanessa. “You defeated a locked office door, opened a protected safe, and removed the contents.”
“Removed?” Vanessa laughed. “Sarah, we’re family. It’s not stealing when it’s from your sister. Besides, you clearly weren’t using them. When was the last time you even looked at those papers?”
“Last month.”