I was completely, blissfully unbothered by the fact that earlier that morning, a pathetic, multi-page, tear-stained letter from Carla had arrived in the mail. It was sent from a cheap, roadside motel on the outskirts of Chicago, begging me for financial help, pleading for access to her granddaughter, and desperately asking for a “loan” from the insurance money she had finally learned about.

It was a letter I had immediately, without a single second of hesitation, dropped unopened directly into the heavy-duty paper shredder in my home office.

Chapter 6: The Ashes of an Empire

Two years later.

It was a bright, brilliantly warm Saturday afternoon in late May. The sky over the coastline was an endless, vibrant expanse of azure blue, completely free of clouds.