The Summer I Left novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: Nate's Road

The bank in Portland opened at nine, and I was first in line with my suitcase.

I had slept three hours on a bench in the train station.

A woman at the fraud desk looked at my forehead, my bandaged arm and my face, and moved a box of tissues toward me.

I didn't take one.

"I need to report my debit card stolen and my account used without permission," I said.

"Okay. Take your time." She opened a form. "Who had access?"

"Three people."

I told her my parents' names, then Brynn's.

She typed without any change in her face.

"Did you give anyone your card?"

"No. It was in my closet. Someone took it."

"And the online password?"

"My friend knew it. I gave it to her when I was sixteen so she could pay me back for concert tickets. I never changed it."

The clerk nodded.

"A password you shared is the hard part," she said. "The stolen card helps you. I can open the claim today and flag it for review. You may get some of it back in ten business days."

"Some?"

"Charges that look like medical bills, we can't promise. The others, maybe."

"What about this one?"

I slid my phone across the desk with the screenshot of the fourth charge.

She frowned.

"NATESROAD FUND. That's a crowdfunding site. Do you want me to pull it up?"

"Please."

She turned her monitor toward me.

A photo filled the top of the page.

Nate sat on our living room couch with his headphones on, looking at his knees.

Above it, in big blue letters, were the words *NATE'S ROAD: Help Him Heal After Seventeen Years of Neglect.*

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