And of everything that came to light in those weeks, Theresa’s cruelty and Lauren’s fraud and the whole family’s contempt, it was Daniel’s theft that cut the deepest, and I have thought about why.

The others had been strangers to me, in the way that in-laws can remain strangers; I had never loved Theresa, never trusted Lauren, never expected decency from Aaron.

Their betrayals hurt my pride and my bank account, but not the core of me, because I had never given them the core of me to wound.

Daniel was different.

Daniel was my husband.

Whatever the family had been to me, Daniel was the person I had chosen, the one I had stood before witnesses and promised my life to, the one who was supposed to be, if nothing else in that family was, on my side.