Without the legal cover and the financial machinery that had always protected it, the thing they inherited collapsed under federal scrutiny within two months.

I had not needed to lift a hand.

I had only needed to stop holding the roof up.

For fifteen years I had believed I was the one keeping the whole dangerous edifice standing, that without my strength and vigilance it would collapse and take everyone with it, and I had worn that belief like a crown and a chain at once.

It turned out to be half true.