From inside Monique’s version of events, I was not her protector; I was the single thing standing between her and the future she had been promised.

Every day I did not approve the transfer was, to her, a day I chose jealousy over her happiness.

It is a terrible position to be put in, and it is designed to be terrible, because a target with no doubts is useless to a scammer — what he needs is a target who will fight her own family on his behalf, who will experience the people trying to save her as the people trying to ruin her.

Chad had built that, patiently, out of my sister.