PART 4 — The Numbers Under the Numbers

The joint account statements were not difficult to obtain.

What frightened me was how ordinary they looked.

Transfers had been given descriptions such as supplier advance, family assistance, and equipment reserve.

Each individual amount was small enough to pass beneath my attention during months filled with clinic appointments, Gertrude’s prescriptions, and Kenneth’s complaints about cash flow.

I made a spreadsheet at Laura’s dining table.

We sat opposite one another with coffee growing cold between us.