My daughter, bless her heart, has always been a bit… scattered. A creative soul, definitely, but not always the most organized when it comes to things like deadlines and, well, finances. So, when I gently reminded her about her upcoming tuition payment for this semester, I wasn’t entirely surprised when she seemed a little flustered. However, her response was definitely not what I expected. She snapped, her voice laced with an unusual edge, [“ASK DAD, HE PROMISED TO COVER IT!”] Now, my ex-husband, David, and I have been divorced for almost seven years. We maintain a civil, if somewhat distant, relationship, mostly for the sake of our daughter, Emily. He contributes to her college fund, of course, as stipulated in our divorce agreement, but we don’t usually discuss the specifics of her tuition payments. So, Emily’s assertion that he had *promised* to cover this particular payment struck me as odd. I distinctly remembered discussing the payment schedule with her, and she seemed to understand that I would be handling it, as usual. David can be… unreliable at times, to say the least. It’s one of the reasons we ended up divorced in the first place! I decided to give him a call, more to clarify the situation than to accuse him of anything.
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To my surprise, David seemed genuinely confused. He claimed that he hadn’t spoken to Emily in months, not since her birthday back in May. He insisted he had not promised to cover her tuition and seemed genuinely concerned about why she would say such a thing. His confusion felt real, it resonated in his voice, I could tell he was being honest. He even offered to check his bank statements to confirm that no recent payments had been made towards her college account. Now I was starting to get worried. If David hadn’t promised to pay, and Emily was so adamant that he had, something wasn’t adding up. Was she trying to manipulate us both? Or was there something else going on entirely? A knot of anxiety began to tighten in my stomach. I decided to investigate further.
Driven by a potent mix of maternal concern and a healthy dose of suspicion, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I know, I know, it’s probably an invasion of privacy, but I felt like something was very, very off. I logged into Emily’s student account online. I figured I could just check the payment history and see where the money had actually come from. It was a simple plan, a quick fact-finding mission. What I discovered, however, was anything but simple. My heart skipped a beat as I scrolled through the transaction history. Every single payment for the past year, not just this semester, had been made, not by me, not by David, but by someone named… [“PRESTON BLOOMGARDEN.”]
The name was completely unfamiliar to me. I wracked my brain, trying to think if I had ever heard Emily mention someone with that name. Was he a classmate? A friend? A professor? I drew a blank. Who was Preston Bloomgarden, and why was he paying my daughter’s tuition? My mind raced, conjuring up all sorts of scenarios, from the relatively benign to the absolutely horrifying. Could it be some kind of scholarship or grant I hadn’t been made aware of? Unlikely, given the specific name attached to the payments. Was it some kind of mistake? A clerical error at the university? Possible, but it felt too deliberate, too consistent.
The most unsettling possibility, of course, was that Emily was involved in something she shouldn’t be. Was this Preston Bloomgarden some kind of benefactor? A sugar daddy, perhaps? The thought made my stomach churn. I couldn’t imagine my Emily, my sweet, artistic Emily, being involved in something like that, but the evidence was right there in black and white. Someone was paying her tuition, someone I didn’t know, someone she hadn’t told me about. This was becoming far more complicated and disturbing than I had ever anticipated. I needed to confront Emily, but I wanted to gather more information first. I wasn’t sure what I was walking into, and I wanted to be prepared.
I spent the next few hours doing some online sleuthing, trying to find out anything I could about Preston Bloomgarden. A quick Google search revealed very little – a few mentions in local business directories, a LinkedIn profile with a vague job description. Nothing that screamed “wealthy benefactor” or “suspicious character.” I even tried searching social media, but came up empty-handed. It was as if this Preston Bloomgarden was deliberately trying to stay off the grid. Or maybe he was just a very private person. Either way, it wasn’t helping me get any closer to the truth. The more I dug, the more confused and worried I became. I felt like I was piecing together a puzzle with missing pieces, and the picture that was emerging was far from reassuring.
Finally, armed with the limited information I had gathered, I decided to confront Emily. I knew it wouldn’t be easy. She’s always been fiercely independent and protective of her privacy. But I couldn’t ignore what I had discovered. I needed to know who Preston Bloomgarden was, and why he was paying for her education. I just hope I am ready for the answer.
