That would have been ugly enough.

But it was worse than that, and colder, and more deliberate.

Every piece of it, the shed, the confiscated cards, the captured income, the whispered remarks about forgetfulness, the folder of signed forms, was not an end in itself.

It was evidence, being assembled, brick by brick, toward a single objective: to stand before a judge and prove that Manuel and Carmen Serrano were two failing elderly people, incapable of managing their own lives, wholly dependent on the devoted family who had moved in to care for them.

And if that petition succeeded, if a court could be persuaded to declare his parents incompetent, then Derek and Veronica would gain formal, legal, permanent control over everything: the house, the money, the decisions, the lives.