Rosalind arrived expecting to defend Bethany, certain that I had unfairly punished my own daughter by refusing to keep giving her money. She barely looked at the folder I placed on the table before lecturing me about family obligations and reminding me that, at my age, money was something I could not take with me. I let her finish without interrupting.

Then I opened the folder and showed her the bank records. There were thirty-six transfers, each for $1,466, sent every month for three years. The total came to $52,800, all because Bethany had repeatedly claimed that she and Trevor were facing foreclosure. I asked Rosalind whether Bethany had told her where the money came from, including the money that had paid for Rosalind’s trip to Fiji. Her confidence began to disappear when she realized the vacation had been funded by the very person Bethany had portrayed as unable to help.