The Receipts That Ruined Him

Leo came to me right before the fall semester started, looking for the money hed earned lifeguarding over the summer.
I threw my hands up. I don't have it.
When Mom and Dad found out, they pointed fingers in my face, screaming that I had no shame.
Then, I pulled out the bank statements and showed them the truth. Their jaws hit the floor.

1.

Because Leo didnt have his own checking account set up for direct deposit, his wages from two months of lifeguarding had been wired to my account. It was a temporary fix, or so I thought.

A week before classes started, he cornered me, demanding the card so he could withdraw cash to buy an iPad for school. I was in the middle of a deep-focus work sprint, buried in spreadsheets, so I just handed him the debit card without looking up.

By the time my brain caught up with what Id done, Leo was already gone.

It wasnt until later that the study door flew open with a violent bang.

"Maya, where is the money?" Leo stood there, eyes bloodshot, shaking a fistful of withdrawal receipts at me. "Two months of work, and there's only a hundred bucks left?"

I blinked, pulling my headphones down. "I forgot to tell you. The account is basically empty."

"Just a hundred bucks?" His voice cracked.

"Yeah."

"Are you treating me like an idiot? How could two months of wages just disappear?" His gaze, sharp with misplaced rage, locked onto the sleek, silver laptop sitting on my desk. "You used my money to buy that, didn't you?"

Before I could process the accusation, he lunged.

He hooked his fingers under the edge of my laptop and yanked it forward with a feral grunt.

"Don't" The plea died in my throat.

CRACK.

The sound was sickening. The machine hit the hardwood floor corner-first, the screen shattering into a spiderweb of dead pixels before going black.

"My files. My laptop."

The final deck. The quarterly strategy pitch I was due to present in forty-eight hours. It was all in there.

I didn't walk; I scrambled across the floor, falling to my knees beside the wreckage.

"Leo, have you lost your damn mind?" I screamed, looking up at him.

He hadnt just broken a machine; he had smashed half a month of my life. My sleep, my sanity, my ticket to a promotiongone.

"That was my presentation! Do you have any idea what youve done? I never touched a cent of your money!"

"You didn't touch it? Then where did it go? Did it fly away?" he roared back, vibrating with adrenaline. "You think I'm stupid? You have the card. If it wasn't you, who was it?"

"What is going on up here? The neighbors can hear you from the street!"

My parents jammed themselves into the doorway simultaneously. My mother took one look at the sceneme on the floor, Leo pantingand her brow furrowed.

"Maya," she sighed, the exhaustion in her voice performative. "How did you provoke your brother this time? Youre an adult. Cant you just be the bigger person?"

The injustice of it felt like a physical blow to the chest.

"I provoked him?" I pointed a shaking finger at the aluminum corpse of my laptop. "He came in here like a psycho and smashed my work computer! My project files are gone, Mom. Gone!"

My father looked at the broken laptop. He knew how much these things cost. For a second, the room held a heavy, stunned silence.

Then, the silence was broken by a sound so pathetic it had to be rehearsed.

"Mom... Dad..."

Leos tears were instantaneous. Big, alligator tears rolling down his cheeks. "Im just... Im so stupid. I worked so hard all summer, sweating in that chair for two months, and Maya took it all to buy herself a fancy new computer. Thats why she wouldnt let me see the account. I just wanted an iPad for school..."

I stared at him, paralyzed by the sheer fluidity of his lie. He was rewriting reality in real-time.

My parents, whose hearts were already heavily weighted in his favor, softened immediately.

Slowly, I bent down, picking up the scattered papers, trying to salvage what I could.

"Youre going to pay me back," Leo sniffled, his voice gaining strength. "With interest. Twenty grand. Principal and interest."

He shoved past my father and stormed out of the room.

2.

"Interest? Twenty grand?"

I screamed at the empty doorway, my voice trembling so hard it hurt. "Your little lifeguarding gig paid three grand, tops! Im telling you, I didnt touch it! Not a penny!"

"Watch your mouth!" My fathers low growl came from behind me. "You ungrateful brat. Spending your brother's hard-earned money and then denying it? Have you no shame?"

My mothers voice was sharper, cutting through the air like glass. "We raised a wolf in sheep's clothing. All that education, wasted on a thief. You owe him that money, Maya."

"I didn't do it."

Nobody was listening.

That night, the phone didnt stop ringing. It was a tribunal by telecommunication.

I kept picking up, masochistically hoping for someone to be on my side. First, it was Uncle Bob. "Maya, honestly. Being the older sister means looking out for him, not skimming off the top. Is this what college taught you?"

I tried to speak, but he hung up.

Then Aunt Karen: "Oh honey, aren't you embarrassed? A grown woman stealing from a teenager? Pay him back before the whole family finds out."

Every call was an indictment.

Then, the screen lit up again. Grandma.

No hello. No warmth.

"Listen to me, girl," her voice crackled, old and brittle. "You give my grandson his money back. Every cent, plus whatever interest he wants. He earned that. If you short him even a penny..."

She paused, letting the threat hang in the static.

"...then you are no granddaughter of mine. Don't bother coming to Thanksgiving. Don't bother coming back at all."

"Grandma..." I whispered.

Click.

From the doorway, a soft, rhythmic crunching sound made me look up.

Leo was leaning against the doorframe, casually eating an apple. He looked relaxed, victorious.

"Heh," he smirked, taking another bite. "Karma."

At dinner, the air was thick enough to choke on.

"Some people really have thick skin," Leo muttered to the ceiling.

Mom slammed a plate of green beans onto the table. "You have the nerve to sit here and eat? After spending your brother's blood and sweat money?"

"I didn't spend it!" The anger flared up, hot and white. "Ive said it a thousand times. The account was empty. Fine. Ill print the statements. From the day the card was issued until now. Well see exactly where it went."

I yanked my phone out of my pocket. The motion was too violent; it dislodged something else.

Clatter.

My car key hit the linoleum and slid under the table.

"Car key?" Leo was faster than me.

He scooped it up and dangled it in front of Dads face. "Dad, Maya bought a car? Since when did she have a new car?"

Absolute silence.

Then, the realization dawned on my parents facesa false epiphany that fit their narrative perfectly.

"That explains it," Dad said, his voice dangerously quiet. "I was wondering how a few thousand dollars just vanished into thin air."

He slammed his hand on the table, making the silverware jump. "You used it to plug the hole for your down payment. Youve got some nerve."

Mom clutched her chest. "Oh, my god. You took his sweat equity to buy yourself four wheels? Maya! is your heart made of stone?"

"I didn't!" I roared, the pressure in my head nearing an explosion. "I saved for that Civic for two years! Leo's lifeguarding money wouldn't even buy the tires!"

Leos smirk vanished. He turned to Dad, whining like a wounded animal. "Dad, look at her. She thinks she's better than us. She used my money and now she's lying about it."

SMASH.

My father snatched the key from Leos hand and hurled it at the floor with all his strength. The plastic casing cracked open.

3.

I scrambled to pick up the pieces, my hands shaking. "Are you happy now? A replacement fob costs three hundred dollars."

The absurdity of it, the sheer humiliation, made me nauseous.

My father loomed over me. "Three hundred is too much? But your brothers summer of waking up at dawn, the money he slaved forthat means nothing to you?"

"Wait," Mom cut in, her eyes narrowing. "I remember. When she was looking at cars, she said she was short a few thousand. She asked us for a loan, and we said no."

She pointed a finger at me, triumphant. "That was when she did it. She couldn't afford it, so she raided the account."

It was a logic built on sand, but to them, it was concrete.

"Thats not what happened," I said, my voice sounding thin to my own ears. "I got a subsidy from the company. A commuter bonus. It was approved last month. I didn't touch his money."

"Subsidy?" Dad sneered. "Keep lying. If you can't produce the cash, you spent it."

He pointed at the broken key in my hand.

"Stop with the excuses. This car... your brother owns a piece of it now. Since you used his money, he has a share. Actually, the car is his."

I stared at him, horrified. I looked at Leo, whose face had shifted from fake victimhood to genuine, greedy delight. "Are you insane? On what grounds?"

"On the grounds that thieves don't get to drive," Mom spat.

Leo didn't hesitate. He snatched the broken key from my hand.

He held it up, a cruel grin stretching across his face. "Thanks, Sis. Thanks for the new ride."

I watched the key swinging in his hand, gritting my teeth so hard my jaw ached. There was nothing I could do. Not right now. I had to wait.

That evening, to celebrate Leo "getting his first car," my parents insisted on taking the whole family out to dinner.

I ate nothing. The food tasted like ash. All I could think about was the key in Leos pocket.

On the way out of the restaurant, Mom suddenly gripped my arm like a vice.

"Wait."

I looked up. We were standing in front of an electronics store. The window display was full of tablets. Alarm bells rang in my head.

Mom dragged me toward the entrance. "Let's go in. Pick out an iPad for your brother. He's a college student; he needs it."

I yanked my arm away. "Mom, I said no. He already stole my car. Why on earth would I buy him an iPad? Do you think I'm an ATM?"

"Why?" Moms voice rose to a shriek. "Because you selfishly embezzled his summer wages!"

Leos eyes lit up. He ran into the store, pointing at the newest, most expensive Pro model. "Mom! I want this one. The big screen."

Shoppers and employees turned to look.

"I'm not buying it," I said, turning to leave.

"You will buy it!" Mom stepped in front of me, blocking the exit. "You aren't leaving until you do."

"Yeah, I deserve it!" Leo, emboldened by Mom, grabbed the box of the expensive tablet and hugged it to his chest. "I want this one. If she doesn't buy it, I'm sleeping here tonight!"

The commotion was attracting a crowd. Whispers started circulating.

Mom saw the audience and immediately switched into performance mode. She slumped against a display table, sliding toward the floor.

"Oh, what did I do to deserve this?" she wailed. "I raised a heartless daughter! She stole her own brother's hard-earned money and now she won't even replace it with a tablet for his studies! God, open your eyes! Why is my life so bitter?"

Every eye in the store locked onto me.

"What kind of person does that?"

"Stealing from a kid? That's low."

"Look at the poor mother."

I saw phones come out. Young customers were recording, cameras pointed squarely at my face.

"Put this on TikTok," someone muttered. "Expose her."

"Karen in training," another sneered.

A store employee, looking awkward and tired, approached me. "Ma'am, please. Either pay for the item or take this outside. You're disrupting business."

I looked at Leo, clutching the iPad with a smug, challenging look. I looked at Mom, fake-sobbing on the polished concrete.

The explanations died in my throat. Instead, a cold, hard rage clarified my mind.

"Fine," I said, my voice cutting through the noise. "Ill show you the evidence. Let's see whose heart is black."

I whipped out my phone. My fingers moved across the screen in a blur.

Bank App. Login. FaceID. History.
Filter: Custom Date Range. June to August.

The list loaded instantly. Crisp, undeniable black text on a white background.

"Look," I said, holding the phone up. "Open your eyes and look."

Dad, who had just parked the car and walked in, pushed through the crowd.

"Look closely. From the day his first paycheck hit."

Dad snatched the phone. Mom scrambled up from the floor to look. Their eyes scanned the screen. And then, they froze.

First, search for and download the MotoNovel app from Google. Then, open the app and use the code "302230" to read the entire book.