It was recently my 27th birthday and my grandparents still put £20 in a card for me. This year they had put two ten pound notes and I was going out that day for a meal with my friend so decided I'd use it to pay for that. I opened my birthday card and just put the two notes on top of each other on the arm of the sofa so that I wouldn't forget to take them and went upstairs to get ready.
My friend came over and let herself in so I shouted down to her that I'd only be 5 mins then I'll be down. I came downstairs and picked up the money but there was only one ten pound note on the sofa. I said "oh, there were two tenners on here, one must have fallen off" so we were both looking for it. I looked on the floor, picked up sofa cushions, looked down the back of the sofa, everywhere! It wasn't anywhere to be seen. So I thought to myself I wonder if she's taken it. I said "unless someone has taken it I don't see how it's disappeared" which I said on purpose to make her know I suspected her. I went upstairs and 5 seconds later she shouted "found it!" So when I went down she said it was under the sofa cushion. How could it have gotten there though? How did one note blow off and end up behind the cushion and the other note stayed where it was. Also how convenient that she found it once she was alone. Plus it wasn't there when we looked. We took both cushions off the sofa.
The reason I am overly suspicious is because she has done something like this before when we were kids. We were 9 and went on a school swimming lesson and we had to go into the changing cubicles in pairs. We went in together and we had to take jewellery off. I had a ring that my dad bought me that meant a lot to me so I took it off and kept it safe in the locker that we shared. When we came back and I got changed, my ring had gone. Again, looked everywhere for it but couldn't find it. I was crying my eyes out because I didnt see my dad often and it was sentimental to me. The next day at school she came in and handed me my ring, claiming that she went back to the swimming baths that night and just found it on the floor.
I am posting here because I never saw her take anything and don't really have proof so I'm not sure what to do. I know that the £10 wasn't a big amount of money but that's not the point and it upsets me that she would steal from me. Should i just let it go as I can't actually say for sure that she took the money? Or should I confront her? Although I know she would just deny it so then I don't really know where to go from there. I just feel quite upset but then there's a teeny tiny part of my brain that says "well maybe she didn't do it?" Even though it seems likely she did.