“I put the gold in a secure deposit box at KeyBank,” Marcus said, taking a bite of pizza. “I’m going to use it to go back to school. I want to get my degree in environmental engineering.”

“Your grandmother would have liked that,” I said.

I looked at the bare walls of my new living room. I should have felt some massive, triumphant wave of relief. I keep waiting for that feeling to arrive. But mostly, I just felt tired. I reached over and took a slice of pizza. It was just a regular Tuesday night, and we had to get up early for work tomorrow. But the air in the room was completely clean.