“Sarah! Sarah, oh my god, you have to help us. You have to come to Mom’s house right now!” She wasn’t just crying. She was hyperventilating, the panic in her voice primal.

“Slow down. Are you hurt? Is Mom hurt?”

“No — no, but they’re here! The men! They’re banging on the door. They have crowbars, Sarah. They said they’re going to take the house! Greg — Greg lied to us.

He owes so much money. Please, they say they’ll hurt him!”

I closed my eyes as the cold knot tightened in my stomach.

The coward hadn’t just been a bully. He’d been a parasite. And now the true cost of his ego had arrived at our mother’s doorstep.