“You can be the person seeking an accounting without making yourself the person entitled to spend the assets.”

I appreciated the clarity, even though I had never wanted the assets for myself.

Richard’s messages described the requests differently.

I was exploiting Emily.

I was letting Daniel search private business papers.

I wanted control of his father’s money.

I saved each message with its date and passed it to counsel.

I did not answer every accusation in the family group or send account numbers to relatives who asked what was going on.