Are you happy now, leaving your own mother with nothing?” I confirmed the money had arrived and the bank had cleared the fraudulent card, and I felt no joy at all.

“I only recovered what belonged to my wife and my son.” “You destroyed this family, Neil.” “You destroyed it,” I said, “the day you decided your other children deserved everything, and I existed to obey.

I won’t press charges, because you returned the money.

But we are finished.

You will never touch my accounts, or my decisions, again.” “I am your mother.” “And Amina is my wife, and Dev is my son.

They come first now.” And I hung up.