That was what struck me even then — that he kept showing me things, grocery receipts, pill bottles, a folder of legal paperwork, as though he were already presenting evidence to a jury he expected to face.

People who have nothing to hide do not itemize their innocence before anyone has accused them of anything.

I smiled, and nodded, and thanked him for all he’d done, and watched my father flinch every time his son’s voice rose, and kept building.

Chapter 3 — What They Thought I Was

“He’s lucky we put up with him,” Chloe said over dinner, and she said it in front of him, the way you’d talk about a dog that had been more trouble than it was worth.

“You ran off to your career and left us to deal with all of this.