For nearly eight months, I had been helping my sister, Brooke, with her three children.
She told me her new job at a medical office required unpredictable evening shifts, so I started picking the kids up from daycare and school several times a week.
I never asked her for money.
She was family, and I thought she was struggling.
One evening, while the older kids were watching a movie, her youngest son, Ethan, followed me into the kitchen.
He looked unusually serious.
“Auntie, why does Mommy keep your stuff in her bedroom?”
I frowned.
“What stuff?”
He grabbed my hand and led me down the hallway.
Inside Brooke’s dresser was a stack of envelopes with my name on them.
I immediately recognized them.
Months earlier, I had temporarily used her address while moving between apartments. I had assumed several pieces of mail had simply gotten lost.
Then I found one envelope already opened.
Inside was paperwork for a refund check worth more than $2,000.
When Brooke got home, I confronted her.
At first she denied everything.
Then she started crying.
She admitted she had deposited the check because she was behind on bills and planned to replace the money before I ever noticed.
I was stunned.
I had been giving up my evenings, buying groceries for her kids, and helping her for free while she hid this from me.
I told her I would always love my nieces and nephew.
But until she repaid the money and rebuilt my trust, the free babysitting was over.
For once, she had nothing to say.
