“Because of tax rules and international wire holds, the money doesn’t just land in my account.

The main lump sum has to sit in a temporary, revocable escrow — linked to my banking file — for seventy-two hours before it clears.” I let that word, revocable, hang in the air, a little door left open.

“And here’s the thing the bank told me.

To release funds that size clean, without triggering an international audit, I have to show a clean, consolidated local financial history.

Which means every asset that was bought with the money I sent over these four years — the SUV, the deed to this house, Godfrey’s shop inventory, all of it — has to be formally brought together under one family holding agreement.