I told him everything. I gave him the number, the date, the address on the application, the detail about the payment history. I told him what I had already done: the dispute, the FTC report, the documentation.
He was quiet for a long time.
Then he said: “Are you sure it’s her?”
I told him I wasn’t sure, not completely, not yet. But I told him the evidence.
He said: “Erin, before you do anything official, you need to talk to her. Give her a chance to explain. If you report this without talking to her first, and it turns out there’s some explanation –“
I said: “What explanation? What possible explanation?”
He said: “I don’t know. I just don’t know what happened yet, and I don’t think you do either. Just — talk to her first. Okay? Can you just talk to her first?”
I said I would talk to her. I did not say I would wait to continue the dispute process. Luke did not ask me to, at that point. We were both, I think, in the early stage of the thing where you haven’t fully absorbed what you’re dealing with, and the position that felt safest was the one that said: wait, and talk, and see.
## The Conversation With My Mother
I called her on a Saturday morning, which is when she is usually home and not rushing. I called rather than driving down because I wanted to be able to end the conversation and I knew that being in her house would make that harder.