“Finally decided to show your face, Mabel?”

Julian bowed his head and produced a performance of tragic grief that would have been convincing to anyone who had not seen the receipts for the cabana and the champagne.

“Mabel,” he said, his voice cracking on cue.

“My mother has only just passed.

And you used my absence — my grief — to steal her legal documents and abandon our home.

How could you.”