“You weren’t just abusing my children,” I said.

“You were robbing me the entire time.” “It was an investment!” Chloe stammered, her voice climbing into terror.

“It was going to be for our future!” “There is no ‘our,'” I said coldly.

“Officers.

Please remove her from my property, and process the formal charges for grand larceny and child endangerment.”

I have reflected on the strange fact that it was the theft, in the end, and not the cruelty, that gave the law its firmest hold on Chloe, and there is a bitter lesson in that too.

The emotional abuse of my daughters was, to me, by far the graver crime; a stolen million can be recovered, but the fear she planted in two small children will take years to fully heal.