Why not warn him? they asked.

Why not sit your son down, show him the cameras, tell him you knew, give him the chance to stop before it went to court and to prison?

And the honest answer is that I did give him that chance, months before, across my own kitchen table, when I objected and he looked away and his wife told me I should be grateful.

That was the warning.

That was the moment the door stood open for him to say you’re right, Mom, I’ve made a terrible mistake, let me undo it. He did not walk through it.

He changed the locks instead.