Fine, I thought, turning the card over in the blue light.

Tomorrow at noon, I would deliver a feast that she and her parasite of a son would remember for the rest of their diminished lives.

Chapter 5 — The War Chest

I want to tell you about that hidden card, because it is the true beginning of this story, long before the kitchen.

Fourteen months earlier, I had opened an account no one knew about, and began, in small and invisible amounts, moving a little of my own money into it.

I had not, at the time, admitted to myself what I was doing.