And he issued a temporary protective order, effective immediately, preventing Michael and Rachel from entering my home, from accessing or contacting my financial institutions, from disturbing my accounts, or from disposing of anything they had already taken from my property.

In the space of a morning, the legal machinery my son had tried to turn against me had turned, entirely, to my protection.

I have thought a great deal, since, about how narrow the margin was, and it keeps me humble, and it is a large part of why I do the work I do now.

I won because of a specific and unusual set of advantages that almost no one in my position possesses.

I was a forensic accountant; I knew how to build a case.