The numbers don’t — they don’t add up.

And I don’t know who else to ask.” He swallowed, ashamed of himself for asking.

“I think I need your help.”

I looked at this tired, decent man, this fellow payer, this other person the family had quietly been draining, and I felt the shape of my whole plan shift and enlarge to include him.

I had thought, walking out of that dining room, that I was going to have to do this alone.

I was wrong.