“It’s remarkable what people will put on paper when they forget the other side has photographs.” At the deposition, his own attorney tried to justify the hidden accounts by saying Brandon had been “protecting assets from unreasonable external demands.” Claire leaned forward.

“Protecting them from whom, exactly?” And Brandon looked at me across that conference table and said, “From her family’s endless financial demands.” I felt a wave of something almost like peace move through me, because it was so absurd it could no longer touch me.

I had paid for his brother’s wedding.

Nursed his mother.

Covered his brother’s rent.

Bought his luxuries.

And my widowed mother’s three months on our sofa was the “unreasonable demand.” Claire’s voice was very even.