As Gramma got more “confused” over the years, it became easier for Journey to get her to agree to home equity lines, credit cards, loans to fund Journey’s grand visions. The family had no idea what was happening until Gramma had passed the previous fall and Tru started finding financial papers stashed all over the house. Tru and Grandad had met with a forensic accountant earlier that week just to figure out how much debt was totaled in their name. Journey had, predictably, disappeared to a remote ashram in India for a “silent yoga” retreat of indefinite length.

“How bad?” Dani asked.

Trudy sighed. “The farm’s been mortgaged twice.”

“But the farm’s never been mortgaged!” Dani exclaimed. “It’s been in the family for six generations without so much as a promissory note.”

“Well, when the deed to the farm is in the name of John Mason Nilsson and Abbigail Nilsson, the bank doesn’t spend too much time checking to see whether it’s the correct John Mason Nilsson signing the paperwork.”

Dani gasped, sinking into the nearby kitchen chair. “He never did a legal name change. He said the fire ceremony was legal enough for him. I’m assuming he drove her to the bank to get the mortgages, when Grandad was out working?”

“Twice, according to the security footage,” said Trudy. “Which the bank was somewhat reluctant to give, considering their screw-up. He also very helpfully drove her to two other banks in town to secure home equity loans.”

Dani wouldn’t cry. She couldn’t. But somewhere, deep in her chest, something broke. She’d always told herself that her father might be lazy and self-centered, but he didn’t seem to have bad intentions. He seemed to truly believe in the principles of love and truth and openness. He just wasn’t good with the whole “responsibility” and “work ethic” thing. He lived in the now, to the point that he never really grasped how his actions affected other people. But this? There was no way to explain away what he did. This was fraud. This was theft. Her father had taken advantage of his own mother’s illness for his own financial gain.

And for him to go after the family farm? How typical of her father to assume just because he didn’t care about it, that no one else had any attachment to it. He probably told himself he was doing the family a favor, taking something he considered a “burden” off of their hands.

If she ever got to India, there would be no silence in his yoga. Only missing teeth and Journey unintentionally putting his legs behind his head.

“Just give it to me straight, Tru. How much?” Dani sighed, slumping to the table as Trudy named a number that—while not astronomical—was certainly well beyond the limit of all of Dani’s credit cards combined.