But he found something interesting as he was reading over that month’s banking statements, which include one for the account he’d had set up for her. Instead of accumulating more money in interest fees as her checking account often did, it was suddenly missing five figures.
He scrolled down until he found the source of the missing money. One payee had subtracted over $30,000. His entire body chilled over when he saw the name written in the Description section.
It was the Rhode Island Design School.
Part III
Secrets could only be kept for so long from an all-seeing monster like Victor.
13
DAWN
He’d surprised me on our first anniversary, but I didn’t let him for the second.
I took the day off of work. I also gathered all the drawing things scattered around the house and packed them away in the dorm boxes in the guest room so that he wouldn’t see them.
I had a feeling he was monitoring me some way (or ways) outside of the still nameless day guard. And I’d done everything I could think of not to let him know what I was planning.
I had used my daycare earnings to buy drawing supplies for practice. I’d also used my own money to purchase a state-of-the-art drawing tablet for animating and the software for doing so—along with a ton of paid online classes on how to actually use both.
The animation program at RhIDS had come a lot farther since the last time I applied. The number of applicants had risen to crazy heights, over a thousand people applying for 60 spots, which meant I’d only had about a 6% chance of being accepted into the program.
I’d read on a candid professor’s blog that, ironically, your chances of getting in were way better if RhIDS didn’t actually have to teach you the animation basics. If you could prove that you had a working knowledge of at least one suite of animation software, that would put you significantly ahead of your competition.
So I’d turned one of the slice-of-life comics that had nabbed me an acceptance letter the first time I got into RhIDS into an animated short. It took every spare minute I had. Like, each and every one of them. But as soon as I started the project, that weird engine-revving-in-the-background feeling that I should be doing something more with my life?
It faded away.
Which was good and bad. I’d finally found something that made me feel amazing and like I had a purpose. But the morning of May 26th lurked in the back of my mind. Because this was something I loved. Something Victor could and most likely would take away when he found out about it.
So I’d deleted my old email account and made a new one that wasn’t nearly as easy to guess the password to as BigBangFan2009. I’d also got into the habit of only emailing and researching how to get into RhIDS at the library—I’d read online that was a low-tech hack to dodge surveillance.
A few weeks after I was forced to go cold turkey from alcohol, I signed up for the morning shift to have more time to draw in the afternoons. And I only ever went to the library on my morning break when the day guard couldn’t take me. Luckily there was a library within walking distance of Young Souls.
So I’d done everything possible to keep both my application and my acceptance into RhIDS under wraps. Unfortunately, there was no way I could afford the tuition without using the money Victor had deposited into my bank account every month without fail.
I hadn’t touched that account in so long. There was a chance that he wouldn’t notice the subtraction. But it was a small one. And, there was no way I could permanently keep my plans a secret. I knew that.
Even if he didn’t notice the considerable deduction from my account, it wasn’t like I could bike to school. I wasn’t even allowed to buy my own groceries anymore. I’d have to ask the day guard to get dropped off at school instead of Young Souls. And then the gig would be up.
Secrets could only be kept for so long from an all-seeing monster like Victor.
But our anniversary was in May. So that gave me a whole summer afterward until I’d have to come clean. Until then, I could hold onto the joy of having a second chance to go to my dream school.
I also didn’t prepare the monster dinner for our second anniversary. In fact, he found me eating Cheesecake Factory takeout while standing up at the island counter when he walked into the kitchen.
That was how he arrived. No knock. Just an opening of the front door, and then he came striding into the kitchen. I wondered if he entered every room like he owned the place. Or just this one. Because he did.
