Aaron filed for separation almost immediately.

Theresa filed a formal police report regarding the identity theft, and the investigation that followed brought criminal fraud charges against Lauren.

I want to be clear that I did not celebrate any of this.

I took no pleasure in watching a family collapse, even a family that had treated me the way this one had.

I did not need to watch them suffer.

I simply needed to make sure that I was no longer being forced to pay for their mistakes, and to keep my own dignity and my own resources intact while they faced, at last, the consequences they had spent years outsourcing to me.