Watching Quinn cross that stage, I understood they had never even known what the right bet looked like.

After the ceremony we walked together toward the gleaming blue Mustang she still kept polished to a mirror, and as I reached for the door, my phone buzzed — an alert from a Columbus real estate service I’d set up years earlier. Foreclosure Sale Finalized — 442 Elmwood Estate. I stood still by the car, the celebrating crowds fading a little as I read it.

The estate that had been my mother’s fortress was gone, sold at public auction to cover her debts.

After her felony conviction for wire fraud, Frances’s life had unraveled fast.

As a first-time, elderly offender, her expensive lawyer had won her a plea — two years suspended and heavy probation, narrowly missing prison.

But the legal fees had been astronomical.