When I was 6, Mom volunteered at a soup kitchen. I remember her taking me with her every week. She was my idol.
Then one day, when I was 15, the doorbell rang. There were 2 serious-looking men who asked her to come with them. I discovered that all those years, she had been actually taking me to the soup kitchen to steal. All those years, she had been using me as a distraction while she stole money.
While I kept the staff occupied, she would slip away to the cash register and take just a few bills at a time—never enough to raise suspicion. But over the years, it added up to a significant amount. No one noticed until recently, when she started going back and was finally caught on camera.
I was in shock. My entire reality crumbled. At first, I refused to believe it, but Mom eventually admitted everything. She told me she had done it because she was a single mother and needed the money.
The way I saw her changed forever.
