I Came Here by My Own Choice

But I noted, quietly, that I would make sure my mother’s medication was not the thing that suffered for what my brother had done.

That was between me and my own conscience, and it did not require me to answer the phone.

I want to be clear about this, because it is the line I would not cross, and the line matters.

I was ending my role as the family’s endless bank.

I was letting the mortgage default, letting the credit fraud fall on the people who committed it, letting the consequences of six years of exploitation finally arrive at the door where they belonged.

All of that I did without flinching, and I have never regretted a moment of it.