Silence hung over the chat for three agonizing minutes.

Then my phone began to ring. It was my father.

I answered and put it on speaker.

“Marcus?!” my father’s voice boomed, completely frantic, the confident authority stripped right out of him. “What did you do?! Where is Julian?! He said the house was in default!”

“Julian lied to you, Dad,” I said, my voice quiet, completely lacking the emotion he probably expected. “He lied because he was broke, and you gave him two hundred thousand dollars without asking a single question because you couldn’t wait to see me fail.”

“Marcus, don’t talk to me like that! He’s your brother! Drop the charges right now!”

“I didn’t press the charges, Dad. The state did. Forgery of bank documents is a felony. You can try to wire him a lawyer in ninety seconds this time.”

I hung up the phone before he could reply, blocked every single number from my family, and drove back home to sit on my deck, watching the ocean as the sun began to set.