At 6 A.M. My Daughter Texted Me About the Money She Took and Said She Was Gone for Good

as an investment in the family’s future. I listened to perhaps two sentences of this before I asked him, in a tone I kept entirely level, whether he had had time to count the money and check that the bills were all in good condition.

There was a pause.

“What do you mean by that?” he said.

“I was just wondering,” I said, “whether you’d verified everything continue reading …