Late at night, while Gary was at his league and Mom was asleep, I visited the website on the card. Reading the descriptions of financial and emotional abuse was like reading my own biography.

Two weeks into my recovery, Gary made his fatal mistake. He went to a bowling tournament in Atlantic City—a three-day event he had raided Mom’s emergency fund to pay for. Mom was bedridden with another one of her “mysterious stomach illnesses,” leaving me with the run of the house.

I had always wondered why Gary’s home office was locked. He claimed it contained sensitive business documents. I decided to find out. Thanks to “YouTube University,” I learned how to pick a lock. It turned out the fancy hardware Gary installed was cheap junk, much like the man himself.

What I found in that office didn’t just change the game; it flipped the board entirely.

First, I found the marriage certificates. Plural. Gary had been married four times before Mom, not twice as he claimed. Barbara from Ohio. Darlene from Pennsylvania. Susan from New Jersey. Margaret from Delaware. There was a pattern: he moved one state away after every divorce.

But that wasn’t the worst of it.