“It’s not imaginary!” Sarah yelled, her voice cracking. “Look at the dates, Mom!”

“The date of the car damage is the exact day before I had my background check for the firm.”

“If there is an active police investigation into who was driving that car, my name is on the registration.”

“I am the co-signer, Mom. You made me co-sign.”

Juliette’s face didn’t soften. “It was a minor scrape on a bumper.”

“It wasn’t a scrape,” I said. “He had to replace the entire front axle.”

“And he has the security footage from the barn camera showing who was behind the wheel.”

Juliette’s head snapped toward me.

“You didn’t have cameras on the barn,” she said.

“We put them in last winter,” I said. “After the tools went missing.”

The kitchen fell silent again, save for the hum of the fridge.

Sarah looked at her mother, her expression turning from anger to something closer to disgust.

“You lied to me,” Sarah said.

“I protected you,” Juliette said, her voice dropping to a low, hissed whisper.

“You protected yourself,” Sarah said. “You didn’t want your premium to go up.”