My name is Chelsea. I’m a 36-year-old housewife and mother of two.

My 16-year-old daughter, Mila, is from my first marriage. Her dad wanted to leave her $50k before he passed away from a short illness. He gave me the sum and told me his last wish was that I spend it on Mila’s education and care. I promised him that I will take good care of her and manage the money well. Once she turns 18, I will give her what’s left of it.

I also have another daughter, who is 9, with my current husband. We want our youngest child to have the same good education as her sister, so we decided to send her to the same private school.

My husband is an employee, and his humble salary doesn’t allow us to pay for the school, so we used funds from Mila’s inheritance.

When she found out, the only thing she said was “You’ll regret this.”

But we didn’t really take her words too seriously.

But the next day, I froze when I found my youngest child crying uncontrollably. I’ve never seen her this way before.

She told me that her sister had said, “Mommy and daddy are about to go to jail because they stole from me.”
A few hours later, cops showed up at my door saying that Mila had reported me. I was horrified.

Now lawyers are involved, and Mila keeps saying that I am a thief. A court hearing is coming up soon.

Even though I haven’t done anything wrong legally, I still might lose Mila’s custody, and she might go live with her dad’s mother because she doesn’t want to see me anymore.

I didn’t want all of this to happen. I was just trying to be fair and give both my daughters a good life.

Am I a bad mother for doing this?