I caught my mother stealing from my savings for years and I never said a word

Since I was 15, I kept money in a wooden box under my bed. Gifts from my father, earnings from holiday jobs. When I turned 20, I opened it and found nothing. Not even the box.

My mother had replaced it with a different one and never said a word. I counted everything in my head, all the money I had saved for school fees. I just sat on the floor and laughed until I cried.

I never confronted her. She is my mother, and I know she used it for my younger sister's WAEC. But the trust is gone. I still love her, but I don't tell her anything about my money anymore. It's a quiet kind of betrayal that lives inside me.