How Did You Make Your Mother Realize She Chose The Wrong Daughter?

The Discovery of a Family-Wide Scam

Two days later, Haley called.

“Mom says you’re jealous of me. I think we should talk.”

We met for coffee. Haley ordered the most expensive drink and put it on my tab without asking, then told me her plan.

“Mom promised me the house when she dies, but I need it sooner. Can you buy it from her now? Let us live there rent-free.”

“Are you serious?”

“Mom’s getting older. She needs care. I can’t provide that without stability.”

“You want me to buy my mother’s house so you can live there free?”

“It’s what’s best for Mom.”

I stood up and left. Haley complained to Mom that I was hostile.

Mom called me abusive and said I traumatized Haley. She was now having anxiety attacks and needed therapy.

“Could I pay for it?”

That’s when I made my decision. I called Mom’s sister, my Aunt Rachel, and told her everything: the money, the demands, and the will threat.

Rachel was furious. She’d been sending Mom money monthly to help with expenses, thinking Mom was struggling.

I called Mom’s brother, Keith. It was the same story.

He’d been paying Mom’s car insurance and phone bill for Haley’s benefit. We compared notes.

Mom was collecting almost 4,000 a month from family, plus her pension, plus my payments for Haley. She’d been playing everyone.

We all stopped payments immediately. Mom called each of us panicking because her bills were past due.

Haley needed things. We suggested she get a job, or Haley could get a job.

Mom was appalled. Haley was focusing on her studies.

“What studies? She dropped out after failing.”

Mom hadn’t told anyone that part. Last month, Mom called me crying because Haley left.

Stolen Identities and the Attorney’s Choice

I woke up the next morning and couldn’t get out of bed right away. My phone sat on the nightstand with six missed calls from Mom, all from yesterday.

I grabbed my laptop instead and opened my banking app. The checking account showed $2,847; three months ago, it had been $18,000.

I clicked through to my credit card statements and added up the numbers again, even though I already knew what they’d say. Card one: $800. Card two: $12,400. Card three: maxed at $15,000. Card four: $6,800.4.

It was $42,400 in three months. The laptop screen blurred, and I had to blink a few times.

Haley was gone now, and I should have felt relieved, but instead, I just felt used up and stupid. I called my boss and told her I had food poisoning.

She said to feel better, and I hung up before she could ask any questions. The apartment was quiet, and I sat there staring at the red numbers on the screen until they stopped looking like money and just looked like a mistake I couldn’t undo.

Mom’s first voicemail played while I was making coffee. Her voice sounded thin and panicked.

“Haley cleaned out the guest room and took everything, including the laptop you bought her. I need you to call me back right away.”

The second message came ten minutes after the first.

“This is your fault for being so unsupportive, and now Haley’s gone and I don’t know where she is.”

The third message had Mom crying.

“You drove her away with your attitude, and now I’m all alone again.”

Message four accused me of being jealous. Message five said I needed to help fix the situation.

Message six, left at almost midnight, said Haley took the new phone too and Mom needed me to replace it so she could try to contact her. I deleted all six messages without responding.

Whatever Mom wanted, it would cost me money I didn’t have or energy I’d already spent. She’d either want me to go looking for Haley or hand over cash to replace what Haley took.

I poured my coffee and unplugged my phone from the charger.

Investigating the Past and Uncovering the Theft

Rachel called that evening while I was eating cereal for dinner because I hadn’t gone grocery shopping in two weeks. Her voice had an edge to it that I’d never heard before.

“I hired someone to look into Haley’s background, a private investigator named Olive Henderson.”

I almost dropped my spoon. Rachel kept talking.

“Olive found records from the state foster system. Haley was adopted and returned by three different families in the past four years.”

Each time, money went missing from the family in significant amounts, including credit cards, cash, and jewelry that got sold. The first family lost almost $20,000.

The second family pressed charges, but Haley was a minor, so the records got sealed. The third family just returned her to the state without filing a report.

My stomach felt sick even though I’d barely eaten anything. Rachel’s voice got quieter.

“Your mother either didn’t check Haley’s history, or she saw it and didn’t care. Either way, this was always going to happen.”

We hung up after Rachel promised to email me the investigator’s report. I sat at my kitchen table with my bowl of soggy cereal and felt validated and furious and stupid all at the same time.

Keith called me three days later with a plan for a family meeting at his house Saturday afternoon. He’d already called Rachel and Mom’s other brother, Tom, who lived two states away.

Tom had been sending Mom money too, about $800 every month to help with groceries. Keith wanted everyone except Mom to compare notes and figure out exactly how much money she’d collected.

We sat around Keith’s dining room table with our bank statements and receipts. Keith had been paying Mom’s car insurance at $180 monthly plus her phone bill at $95.

Rachel had spent $600 every month for utilities, and Tom sent $800 for groceries. My payments for Haley averaged about $2,500 monthly.

We added it up three times to make sure: $6,175 every month for three months plus Mom’s pension, which was around $2,400. Keith called Mom and asked her to come over, but she refused.

“You’re all ganging up on me, and I won’t be treated like a criminal.”

We sat there after Keith hung up and decided we needed to help Mom face reality without enabling whatever she’d been doing. Rachel said we should create boundaries and stick to them.

Tom said Mom needed to understand actions have consequences. I just wanted to stop feeling like an ATM machine.