“It’s held by the trust now.

The locks change at six-oh-one.”

Over the six months that followed, it all came down with a slow, cold precision.

The state charged my mother with felony elder neglect and reckless endangerment; to avoid trial she took a plea — probation, community service, and full restitution to the estate for the money she had stolen, which forced her to sell her car and her jewelry to pay.

Brett’s whole world folded once the monthly checks and the imagined inheritance were both gone; his girlfriend left, and he took two retail jobs to stay ahead of his debts.