My brother actually laughed at dinner and said, ‘I sold that useless laptop of yours for five hundred bucks. Finally got rid of your junk.’ My cousins cheered him on. Then he added, almost proudly, ‘Already handed it off to the buyer.’ I got up, stepped outside, and called my supervisor. By the time I made the report, the FBI cyber team was already tracking the device…

actually lived instead of where he had decided I ought to.

Lunch ended. We went our separate ways.

That was the shape of it now. Civil. Limited. Real. No Sunday dinners. No pretending.

Derek wrote twice more from prison.

I read both letters.

I answered neither.

That wasn’t spite.

It was boundary.

There is a difference, no matter how often people who benefited continue reading …