After that it came apart quickly, the way things do once the money that was holding them up is gone.

Dashiell was fired — his employer discovered he’d listed company vehicles as personal assets and filed false expenses, and when they asked me, formally, for the accounting records that would confirm it, I simply provided what they asked for.

Without income, a phone, a car, or a card, he tried to buy Sabelle a coffee on a cancelled account and I got the security alert when it declined; she berated him in the café for a broke fraud and blocked him for good.

And that night, again through the wall, I heard Corinna screaming at him — not for wrecking his family, but for having spent on the mistress money she felt was owed to her.

It was the whole family in one sound: united while the money flowed, at each other’s throats the instant it stopped.

I want to be careful not to enjoy that part more than is good for me, but I’d be lying if I said I felt nothing listening to it.