The screen confirmed it in green.

The line was cut.

I felt no cruelty in it and no glee — only the strange lightness of setting down something I had carried too long.

For five years I had funded a version of these people that did not exist without me: Craig’s imaginary wealth, Noreen’s imaginary generosity.

Now the funding stopped, and whatever they actually were, without my money underneath them, they were about to find out.

There is a particular clarity that comes when you finally see the true shape of a thing you’ve been inside of for years.