I Came Home After Four Years Working Abroad and Found My Wife Starving in Our Backyard—Then My Mother Asked About the Money I Hadn’t Told Her Was Fake

Taken Phoebe’s belongings.

Used money dishonestly.

Interfered with medical care.

Humiliated my wife.

Human beings do not become legally innocent because they once loved us.

Nor do they become fictional monsters with no history.

Both truths remained.

Godfrey was easier to hate.