Chapter 12 - Avalon Finally Stopped Saying “I Was Going to Replace It”
We met with a mediator before lawyers hardened everyone permanently.
Avalon's attorney was present.
So was Randall's.
Mine too.
Nobody was there to forgive anybody.
The accounting mattered.
Of $120,000:
$40,000 remained initially untouched.
$25,000 went to Randall's company.
$18,600 to Patrick's care.
Approximately $8,000 had covered legitimate expenses connected to me—insurance premiums, one medical bill, property-storage costs I had forgotten.
The rest?
Personal spending.
Roughly $28,000.
Not $120,000.
Still unacceptable.
Still repayable.
Still potentially serious depending on authorization and intent.
The lawyers would handle classification.
What mattered emotionally came when Avalon stopped defending herself.
“I liked having the account.”
Randall looked at her.
“What?”
She wiped her eyes.
“People needed me.”
Her father.
Me.
Randall's company.
Randall.
At first she moved money because emergencies happened.
Then everyone praised her for holding things together.
Nobody saw what it cost.
Then she began paying herself emotionally without admitting that was what she was doing.
New furniture.
A weekend away.
Clothes.
“I told myself I'd earned it.”
She looked at me.
“I hadn't.”
May you like
That sentence mattered.
Because understandable resentment is not authorization.
