I swear, I just assumed they’d search the house. At the start I was more focused on Alan and trying to remember which turn was which and exactly what time it had been when my brother picked me up, when he dropped me off and when he asked me to wait in the car. And then I thought that they already had the money, and they’d ask about it eventually, but they didn’t. And then suddenly it’s the next day and I’m signing a piece of paper as true and accurate, and I still haven’t mentioned the money. And neither has Michael – who may not even know that I’m the one who turned him in yet, and so, I figure, maybe he thinks I’m still on his side and protecting it for him. And then I’m on the stand, and still no one’s mentioned it, and neither Michael nor Marcelo bring it up to screw me during the trial, like I’m half expecting them to, and I know I’m well past the point of mentioning it without really putting a spanner in things, and so it sits, unspoken. And the judge reads the verdict and I go home and the bag is still in my house but the world is different. My brother’s in jail and I have a bag with $267,000 in it. I know the amount for sure myself now, because I’ve had time to count it.

That was another reason I couldn’t miss this weekend. I’d told Sofia my plan a few weeks ago. I planned on giving Michael the bag tomorrow. I wasn’t thinking of it as an apology, because I didn’t do anything wrong, but maybe it was some kind of offering. It wasn’t an olive branch, but it was certainly green (metaphorically, at least, because it wasn’t all hundreds). And almost all of it was still there, too. What a good brother I am.

‘Is all of it there?’ Sofia asked, looking at the disembowelled bag in front of her on the couch. She hovered instead of sitting down, nervous about touching it.

‘Most of it,’ I confessed.

‘Most of it?’

‘Well . . . there were some emergencies. It’s been three years. I don’t know if he even counted it.’

‘You said he counted it.’

‘He probably counted it,’ I conceded. ‘I’m hoping he might not remember exactly.’

‘You know what I’d do if I was in prison for three years thinking my brother stole a bag of cash off me? I’d think about it every single day. To the cent.’

‘I figure he thinks I’ve spent it all, and so he’ll be pleased to get it—’

‘—most of it—’

‘—most of it back.’