He also announced that Homefront Restoration was being attacked because it had refused to “bend to bureaucrats.”

Ruth watched a short portion of the video with us.

“He’s talking about me as if I aren’t there,” she said.

“You aren’t required to answer him publicly,” Miriam replied.

“Our priority is financial protection and accurate records.”

I wanted to respond online.

I wanted to post the photograph of my uniform next to his invented biography, to write every sharp sentence I had swallowed at dinner.

My finger hovered above the screen.