I had already seen the only moment that mattered, in the bright noise of that airport gate, when the mask came off and there was nothing underneath it that I recognized or had ever really known.

Chapter 21 — What the Sentences Were

Julian was sentenced to twelve years in a federal prison.

His professional licenses were revoked, permanently and in every state.

The assets the government could trace — the accounts, the cash, the lake house he’d wanted to redeck, a great deal of what we had called our life — were seized as proceeds of the fraud.

I did not fight for them.