The board, not I, would make any decisions about repayment or civil claims, and any criminal investigation would proceed independently.

I refused to participate in backroom discussions.

Then Dad sent me a letter.

It was four pages, typed, with his signature at the bottom.

He described the loans, the failed business, and his fear of telling Patricia they might lose their home.

He admitted he had treated the developer’s offer as an escape from debts that had grown beyond his control.

He called the lawsuit “a regrettable strategy.”