Chapter 5 - WHAT KAREN DID WITH THE MONEY
The secret rentals earned approximately $47,000 over eighteen months.
That was the first estimate.
The real number eventually reached $63,400.
Karen had listed the cottage privately through invitation-only Facebook groups, local wedding vendors, and direct referrals rather than major rental platforms.
That kept it harder to search.
She marketed it as:
Private Bennett Family Lake Estate
Technically true enough to fool casual guests.
She claimed she was the property manager.
She used temporary access codes she somehow created after watching Sarah administer the smart-lock system.
How did she get the lockbox card?
Diane.
Not intentionally.
Months earlier Diane borrowed Sarah’s purse to retrieve medication during a lake weekend.
Karen saw the spare card attached to an old key ring.
She photographed it.
Then ordered a duplicate through a locksmith who believed she was authorized.
That explanation made Diane cry.
“I gave it to her without giving it.”
Sarah answered:
“No. She stole access. Those are different.”
That mattered.
Karen had enough blame.
Nobody needed to manufacture more.
The money went where desperation usually hides.
Not designer bags.
Not some secret lover.
Debt.
Karen’s catering-sales position had been eliminated fourteen months earlier.
She told everyone she left because she wanted “consulting flexibility.”
In reality, she was laid off.
Her severance lasted three months.
Then credit cards.
Then Tyler’s private-school tuition.
Then legal fees from her divorce.
Then rent on a townhouse she could no longer afford.
She hid all of it.
Why not ask family?
Pride.
And anger.
Karen believed Silver Lake should have been partly hers anyway.
That belief gave theft a moral costume.
She told herself:
Ben inherited what should have been shared.
May you like
She was merely extracting her portion.
The problem with entitlement is how quickly it can turn arithmetic into ethics.
