My parents called at 1 A.M. screaming, “Wire $20,000—your brother’s in the ER!” I asked one question… and they dodged it. So I said, “Call your favorite daughter,” hung up, and went back to sleep. The next morning… police were at my door.

“Yes,” I answered, suddenly aware that my throat felt dry.

“Did you receive a phone call around one o’clock last night asking you to wire twenty thousand dollars?”

The words made my mind replay the memory immediately.

At exactly one in the morning my phone had buzzed loudly against the wooden nightstand beside the bed. My husband Luke had not even moved. That man could sleep through thunderstorms and fireworks and the neighbor’s dog barking all night, but I had never been able to ignore the sight of my family’s number appearing on my screen.

My sleepy brain had already decided who it was before my eyes even focused on the phone.

Mom.

I answered automatically.

“Hello. Mom, what is going on?”

The voice that answered sounded almost like my mother Patricia, but it was stretched tight with panic.

“Diana, oh my goodness, honey.”

I pushed myself upright in bed so quickly that the blankets twisted around my legs.

“Are you okay?” I asked quickly. “What happened?”

“Twenty thousand dollars,” she gasped as if the number itself had caused the emergency. “We need twenty thousand right now.”

My heart began pounding.

“For what?” I asked. “Mom, tell me what happened.”

“Your brother Travis,” she cried. “He is in the emergency room and they will not treat him unless we pay.”

“What hospital?” I asked immediately. “What happened to him?”

There was a pause that lasted less than a second, but something about it felt wrong. It reminded me of hearing a wrong note inside a familiar song.

Then another voice replaced hers.

FULL STORY IS IN THE LINK BELOW 

Next »

Next page