I sat with it for a long time.

The old me, the peacekeeper, wanted to call him, give him a chance to explain, work out a quiet repayment, keep it in the family.

That instinct had governed me for a decade.

And I finally understood that it was the very thing that had made all of this possible — that people like Grover count on exactly that instinct in people like me, on the endless benefit of the doubt, on the family man who won’t make it official because making it official would be unkind.

So I did the unkind, necessary thing.

I hadn’t confronted him at home.