Home Entertainment Game Technology Advertisement Part 2: For eight years, my parents made me leave the house every time my brother brought his fiance over; Mom said, “She comes from a good family, don’t embarrass us”; Dad added, “Just disappear for the weekend”; I did; then one weekend, I never came back; it took them four years to find out where I went.

“No.”

He wiped his face.

“That's what made me stop lying.”

“Not why I'm cooperating.”

“Why, then?”

“Because Grandma was right.”

He looked at the letter.

“A criminal problem doesn't become less criminal because you're scared of being caught.”

Fine.

He cooperated.

That later mattered in sentencing.

It did not make him innocent.

The investigation uncovered the entire financial trail.

Insurance payout:

$412,600.

Memorial donations:

$86,437.

Several smaller bereavement gifts.

Dad used part to save his contracting business.

Part to clear the mortgage.

Part to buy the lake property.

Mom knew.

Mitch knew after the fact.

Neil received $18,000 disguised as funeral-related and consulting payments.

He had also signed the false county filing.

The most painful discovery was not money.

It was my bedroom.

Investigators photographed the outside lock.

Memorial objects stored in boxes.

Church programs.

Copies of my “death” announcement.

Mom had turned the room I slept in every weekday into a memorial set every weekend.