Big Data Helps: I Sue My Mom

I was scrolling through a forum when a post caught my eye: My Ex-Husband's Bank Account Is My Personal Piggy Bank. Here's How.
Below it was a long stream of censored screenshots of bank transfers.
Someone did the math in the comments. Damn, that's tens of thousands of dollars. You're a legend!
Please, teach me your ways! I'm begging you!
The original poster replied, smug. "That's nothing. There were so many transfers, I got tired of taking screenshots."
"It's easy. You just play them both."
"For example, my daughter's birthday is coming up. I tell my ex that she's been acting out, wants a new car, and if he doesn't buy it, she's going to run off with some bad-news biker type."
"Then I turn around and tell my daughter that her dad is so wrapped up in his new family that he won't even spare a dime for her. She gets heartbroken, starts ignoring her dad completely, and all the money she earns, she gives to me."
"I play them both, I profit from both, and I get a daughter who's completely devoted to me. It doesn't get much better than that."
And this woman had the nerve to call herself a mother?
I scoffed in disgust, about to close the tab.
Just then, my mom walked in, her face a mask of fury.
"Honey! Your father is getting more and more ridiculous! He has enough money to buy his new wife a diamond ring, but for your birthday, he won't even buy you a cake!"
1
I froze, a wave of anger and bitterness washing over me.
"Then don't buy it. Who cares!"
"Even if he did, I wouldn't take a single bite. I'd throw it to the stray dogs on the street!"
"Why should he get away with it!" Mom was fuming. "You're his own flesh and blood!"
"The money he earns should be spent on you! Why should that old snake get to enjoy it?"
She paused, and then her eyes started to well up with tears.
"It's my fault. I'm not good enough. I see you suffering through a two-hour subway commute every day, not even getting a full night's sleep, and I don't have the money to buy you a car."
"My poor Chloe. Your own father makes so much money, but for you, it's like you don't have a father at all."
She pulled me into a hug, her tears falling freely.
"Oh, Chloe, you've suffered so much. It's all my fault. I wasn't strong enough back then. I couldn't stop that shameless homewrecker from stealing his heart, and now you have to grow up without a dad. I'm so sorry."
A lump formed in my throat, and my own eyes began to burn.
Back in middle school, my mom had caught my dad cheating. An endless storm of arguments followed. Even though he was the one in the wrong, he walked away from the divorce with most of their assets and had even declared he didn't want me, calling me a burden.
After that, the monthly child support payments were never on time. Not once.
I remember one time the school required us to buy new uniforms; it was fifty dollars.
Seeing my mom worry about money every day, I secretly went to my dad's house.
But the moment he saw me, his first question was what kind of trouble I'd gotten into this time. He said he was utterly disappointed in me.
The words I had practiced died in my throat. Before he could say more, I turned and ran, tears streaming down my face.
When my mom found out, she held me and cried all night. In the end, she had to beg her boss at her part-time job for an advance on her salary.
But raising a child is expensive. A fifty-dollar advance was just a drop in the ocean.
My freshman year of high school, I wasn't eating well and didn't have warm enough clothes. Just before winter, I came down with acute pneumonia. My fever was so high my skin was red as a boiled shrimp. I needed to be hospitalized immediately.
But just the initial tests wiped out all of my mom's savings.
She called my dad, crying. She must have thought I was asleep because she didn't bother to hide the conversation.
But I was wide awake. I heard every word of her low, pleading voice, and I saw the utter despair on her face as she covered it with her hands and wept after he refused her.
From that day on, I told myself: I don't have a father. I only have a mother. I only need my mother.
But there was one thing I could never understand.
My dad used to be so good to me. He cared for me, spoiled me rotten.
Sometimes, he doted on me so much that even my mom would get a little jealous.
But he never changed, just laughed and said I was his little princess, the apple of his eye.
Why did everything change the moment they started talking about divorce?
Was it true what they say? When a new wife comes in, the old kids are forgotten.
Now, I'd graduated from college.
In eight years, my father hadn't visited me once. The number of times he'd called I could count on one hand.
Even though I'd given up hope, what child doesn't yearn for their father's love?
Especially when you've had it and then lost it. The ache never truly goes away.
Slap!
A sharp sound pulled me from my thoughts.
My mom, lost in her sorrow, had slapped herself in a fit of self-blame.
"Mom, don't do that," I cried, grabbing her hand to stop her from hurting herself again.
"I've never blamed you. In my heart, you are the best mother in the world," I said, my voice choked with emotion.
But that only made her cry harder.
"My sweet Chloe. You're so good, so devoted. How could that blind, heartless bastard be so cruel!"
"It all comes back to me. I'm not good enough. I've dragged you down with me, made it so you've never had a single good day."
"Forget everything else, he goes and buys that snake a diamond ring out of nowhere, but not only have I never worn one in my life, when you get married in a few years, I won't have the money to buy you one either."
The anger and bitterness in my chest swelled, and the tears finally fell.
He was the one who cheated. I was his daughter. Why were our lives so hard?
Especially my mom. She had worked herself to the bone her whole life to raise me, and she had never even owned a ring.
"Mom, I'm not even dating anyone. Marriage is a long way off. There's no rush."
"And besides, I just..."
I was about to say that I'd just gotten my annual bonus, and with my savings, I had enough to buy her a ring.
But as the words were on my lips, the image of that online post flashed through my mind.
My heart gave a violent thud. I changed my sentence. "Besides, I was thinking of getting a mortgage on a small apartment near my office. That way I won't have to deal with the subway commute anymore."
"Mom, I'm going to go ask my dad for the money. The child support he owes me from all these years should be more than enough for a down payment."
2
My mom's sobs stopped instantly.
My heart hammered against my ribs again. I made a move to stand up.
She panicked, her arms tightening around me.
"Don't go!"
Her crying grew even louder. "I can't bear to see you go, Chloe."
"Have you forgotten that time you went behind my back to ask for the uniform money? You didn't get a penny, and he yelled at you in front of everyone."
"I can still see your face, streaked with tears, when you ran home. The pain in my heart... it was like being stabbed."
"That wasn't asking for money. That was asking for my life!"
"Chloe, sweetheart, if anyone's going, it'll be me. I can't stand to see you get hurt like that again."
She cupped my face, pressing her forehead against mine, her voice trembling with sobs.
My resolve softened. I wanted to slap myself.
My mother was a saint. For so many years, she had worked tirelessly to raise me.
To protect me from more pain, she had never even considered remarrying, dedicating her entire life to me.
How could I be so heartless? How could I even begin to doubt her?
"Mom, please don't cry." I gently wiped her tears away.
All my suspicion and the idea of hiding anything from her vanished.
However...
"Mom, I'm not a little girl anymore. I'm not the same kid who runs away crying after a few harsh words."
"I don't want what isn't mine. But what I'm owed, he won't short me a single cent."
I let out a cold snort, my eyes filled with resentment.
"He owes me that child support, and I'm going to get it. If he refuses to pay, I'll go to his office and make a scene. I'll take him to court. I'll expose him online!"
"I don't believe it. He might not be afraid of us, but he has to be afraid of his boss, the courts, of being publicly shamed, right? I... ouch!"
A sharp pain shot through my arm, making me hiss.
My mom realized what she was doing and quickly let go of my arm where her fingers had dug in.
"Mom, what's wrong?" I asked, worried. "Are you not feeling well?"
"It's-it's my stomach. It just started hurting. Maybe it's my old problem acting up again." A flash of panic in her eyes, but she quickly composed herself.
Her expression was still a little unnatural. "Chloe, honey, could you make me some soup? It's good for my stomach. I could really use some."
The suspicion I had just suppressed began to creep back.
I bit my lip, nodded, and went to the kitchen.
All these years, to raise me, my mom had been both a mother and a father.
She worked three jobs to make ends meet and still had to worry about my meals and my schoolwork when she got home.
She rarely ate on time; sometimes she'd go the whole day without even a sip of water. She had developed stomach problems years ago.
A sudden stomachache was normal.
In contrast, my dad's career had soared. He made more and more money, and his life got better and better.
There was no justice in the world. Why did a man who abandoned his wife and daughter, who wouldn't even pay child support for the sake of some homewrecker, get to live so well?
He should know what it feels like to be hungry and cold.
The more I thought about it, the more unfair it felt. I pulled out my phone and sent him a message.
3
[It's my birthday. Where's my present?]
A moment later, he replied.
[No money. Ask your mother.]
Even though I was already completely disillusioned, even though I had no expectations, seeing that reply still made my eyes burn with angry tears.
How could he?
He was the one who brought me into this world and then abandoned me. How could he be so shameless!
I scrolled through his social media. It was filled with pictures of him taking his new wife out to fancy dinners, buying her expensive gifts, going on vacations.
How was that fair!
[Child support was part of the divorce settlement. It's legally binding! You've been illegally withholding it for years! Pay me back what you owe, with interest, or I'm suing you for abandonment!]
I furiously typed out the message and hit send, only to be met with a glaring red exclamation mark.
He had blocked me.
Tears of frustration streamed down my face. I was about to call him.
But then I saw the forum tab, still open on my phone.
On a strange impulse, I paused and clicked back into the thread.
The original poster had just updated it.
"Not sure what happened, but I did my usual routine, and this time my daughter didn't fall for it so easily. Instead of giving me money to comfort me, she insisted on going to her dad to ask for it."
"Tsk. I guess when they grow up, they're not so easy to fool anymore."
The comments section was quickly filled with ridicule.
"You play with fire, you get burned. Serves you right! Your daughter's probably suspicious. You're about to get caught."
"I've never seen a mother like you. For a bit of cash, you let your child grow up without a father's love. Don't you feel bad seeing her so sad?"
"She doesn't feel a damn thing. Anyone who could do this doesn't deserve to be a mother. She's a monster."
"Fuck, if I had a mother like that, I hope I'd never find out. Otherwise, I'd probably stab her. I can't even imagine what that poor girl went through, crying herself to sleep thinking her own father didn't want her."
Even the people who had been begging for her "advice" before were disgusted now.
But some defended her. "What's wrong with a mother trying to get some money? So she got her heart broken and her life ruined by some scumbag, and she's not allowed to take some of his money after the divorce? Why the hell not?"
"Exactly. A woman has to be herself first, then a mother! If her daughter is gullible enough to be fooled, that's on her. She deserves it!"
"OP, if things are looking bad, just go for the big score. Drain your ex and your daughter dry, then get the hell out of there and live your best life. Your daughter's an adult now, she won't starve!"
The original poster immediately liked those comments.
She even pinned the last one that gave her advice, replying to it directly.
"Girl, you and I are on the exact same wavelength. That's exactly what I was thinking."
"You guys don't know, but when my daughter said she wanted to ask her dad for a down payment on a house, it gave me a brilliant idea!"
"A house, you know? The down payment alone is tens of thousands. If things go south, I'll use that as an excuse to get all the money from both of them. Hehe."
Staring at the words on the screen, I felt like I had fallen through ice into a frozen river. A chill that had nothing to do with the temperature seeped into my bones.
I stood there, paralyzed, an uncontrollable tremor running through my body.
4
Both divorced mothers with daughters. Both daughters celebrating a birthday today.
I had just mentioned buying a house and asking my dad for money, and immediately the poster says her daughter is getting harder to fool and that the house idea gave her an inspiration...
How could it be such a coincidence? How was that even possible?
The suspicion I had just suppressed came rushing back with the force of a tidal wave.
Forgetting the soup simmering on the stove, I tiptoed as quietly as I could towards my mother's room to see what she was doing.
Through the half-open door, I saw her. She was comfortably propped up against the headboard, her fingers flying across her phone screen as she typed.
I didn't know if she was chatting with someone or replying to the post.
But her lips were curved into a smile. Her face was alight with excitement and triumph. There was no trace of the woman who, moments ago, had been in so much stomach pain that she'd accidentally dug her nails into my arm.
Just then, her typing stopped.
I immediately retreated to the kitchen. As expected, the post had a new reply.
It was a response to the comment that said she was about to get caught.
"Thanks for the concern, sis, but I'm not getting caught anytime soon. You know why?"
"Hehehe, because I was smart. Years ago, I told my daughter her dad had a new phone number and had her save a second number of mine as his contact."
"I did the same thing on his end."
"So now, their social media, their text messages... they only see what I want them to see."
"Hmph. My daughter just tried to text her 'dad' behind my back. I just replied 'no money' and then blocked her. How's that for a pro move?"
Of course.
Of course. That's why my dad, who used to adore me, had only called a few times in the beginning and then went completely silent for eight years.
So that was it. It was all a lie.
But I was her daughter. The child she carried for ten months. How could she do this to me?
In that moment, I no longer felt like I was in my home, a place of safety. It felt like I was standing on the edge of a bottomless abyss that was about to swallow me whole.
Everything was a lie. What was even real anymore?
Dark spots danced in front of my eyes, the world twisting into a grotesque caricature of itself.
Biting my lip hard, I forced myself to move, slipping out of the house as quietly as I could.
Once outside, I didn't care about anything else. I hailed a cab and ran to my father's house.
As I got out of the car, I saw him walking out of his apartment complex.
"Chloe?" We hadn't seen each other in almost eight years, but he recognized me instantly.
He frowned, his expression grim. "Why are you taking a cab? Didn't you throw a fit until I bought you that car? If I bought it, why aren't you driving it?"

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