Then another.
You are destroying your family over money.
I sat at the desk by the window and watched tiny figures move along the sidewalk below. I could not see him from that angle, but I could picture him perfectly: expensive coat, hard face, one hand tucked in his pocket, making strangers believe he was simply a worried father.
I forwarded the texts to Nora.
Her reply came quickly.
Do not engage. Document everything.
So I did.
That became my new education before college had even begun. How to document. How to keep records. How to separate emotion from evidence. How to read a bank statement. How to understand a contract. How to recognize when someone calls control “concern.”
Three weeks after my birthday, Nora invited me to her office.
“There are things you should know,” she said.
I sat across from her at the same polished table where I had signed the trust papers. This time, I did not feel like a child pretending to understand adult business. I felt like someone who had survived the first blow and was waiting for the next.
