I didn’t bother explaining to Richard that I was just as lost as he was when it came to my mother’s squandered estate. I laughed aloud, pleased at his obvious frustration, and simply hung up on him. For all I cared, he could go on thinking that I had somehow managed to get my hands on it and done all of the squandering.

Despite the confounding mystery of it all, I felt better knowing that he could no longer leech off of my family. The possibility of finally being free of his ...