It took over three months for the police to fully process the Sanctuary as a crime scene, during which they confiscated forty pounds of unlicensed cannabis and discovered one body buried in a shallow grave behind the stables. There was not enough evidence to charge any of the other residents with the crimes that transpired. Karina has tried to track some of them down, insisting they are still her friends, but most seem to have disappeared. There are rumors they have regrouped in a new house under a new leader, somewhere outside Calabasas.

Once the property was finally vacated, the landlord, Joe Petrosyan, sold it at a bargain price to an overseas buyer who had been looking for just such a piece of land in Rancho Paraiso to build a world-class equestrian facility for her dressage competitors. To protect property values and privacy, the community board quickly voted to change the name of the road on which the Sanctuary was located, so that the group was not only disbanded but written out of history.

Although Keith had a hard time adjusting to his newly unemployed status, the past year has been a gift in many ways. Primarily, it has been a chance to focus on Karina. He comes over to the house every day, and they feel like a family again in the best possible way. He and Karina took some cooking classes, and they have learned to make more vegetarian meals: lentil stews, tofu curries and cauliflower steaks, which Jaya appreciates with a hearty appetite. But some things haven’t changed: when they order pizza on Friday nights, he and Karina still polish off a whole pepperoni pie between them. It all reminds him—though in a different way—of those early days in London when he and Jaya discovered food together as they learned how to be a couple. Now, it is the three of them, a re-formed unit, learning how to shape themselves around a missing piece without losing themselves to it.

Keith sold his condo, which had appreciated considerably with Silicon Valley’s growth, and moved into a simpler duplex close to Jaya’s house in Los Altos. These days, he only returns to his place to sleep anyway, and the move has given him greater financial security after paying the SEC penalties he incurred. In the end, neither of his remaining family members derived much benefit from the money he’d worked so hard to amass. Jaya has always believed too much money is corrupting, and Karina was eager for her financial independence. That single illegal trade was driven more by his ego, truthfully, than anything else. And it was that ego that drove a wedge between him and Jaya, even him and Karina—his limited ability to value them for who they were, rather than who they could be. He has come to these realizations painfully, working with the therapist they each see individually and also together as a family. They have all been speaking more honestly than ever before, and sometimes that is shockingly painful—more painful even than the therapy after Prem died. But their honesty is buying them something more valuable than the pain it causes: a way to move forward, a way to forgive each other and themselves, a future as a family rather than just three individuals.