The performance of wealth that had made her feel superior to me for years was dismantled, piece by piece, and it turned out there had been almost nothing real underneath it the entire time.

Neither of them went to prison.

The evidence was more than sufficient — my grandfather had seen to that — but the claims were resolved, in the end, through negotiated settlement and restitution rather than criminal prosecution.

And I want to be clear that this was a choice, and that it was mine, and that I made it deliberately, after a great deal of thought.

Because I could have pushed for prison.

Part of me, the cold part that had formed in the snow on Christmas morning, wanted to.