The balance still included enough for the return of my forty-two thousand, subject to the bank’s review and whatever rights affected those funds.

That possibility changed my anger.

Until then, the money had felt irretrievable, and my son’s excuses had felt like another kind of loss.

Now there was a practical decision to make.

I wanted it back.

I wanted the false authority removed from every place it had been used.

I wanted my home protected before Greg invented another reason to manage it for me.

I did not want a public spectacle.