He slammed his fist on the wooden table and disappeared for nearly a month. Abigail cried in her room, and she did not change the terms of the trust.

Over time, he started meeting his obligations. He finished rehabilitation, took small design jobs, learned to separate personal and business expenses.

Every week he deposited a modest amount against his debt.

During his community service he met an elderly man named Thomas, a widower whose children had sold his house using a fake power of attorney.

“I raised my children thinking I should never deny them anything,” Thomas told him one afternoon. “By the time I finally said no, they’d already learned to take what they wanted without asking.”

That night Spencer called his mother.