The total was twelve thousand six hundred dollars. Kevin had given me thirty-eight hundred. He kept nearly nine thousand dollars for himself. He didn’t just steal the money. He stole the memories I had entrusted him to honor.

I didn’t call him. I didn’t send a text. I pulled out my legal pad and started writing. My hand was shaking so hard I had to stop twice just to steady my nerves. I knew exactly what I needed to say to get his attention.

I finished the draft and drove to the bank to get it notarized. The teller asked me if everything was alright. I just nodded and told her I was handling some family business. That felt like the understatement of the century.

I kept thinking about him sitting at my table eating my roast beef. He sat there and looked at me while he held almost ten thousand dollars of my money in his pocket. It makes my skin crawl just thinking about it now.

I went home and put the letter in a thick envelope. I drove to the post office and sent it certified mail. I needed to know that he received it. I needed to know that he saw the proof of his own greed staring back at him.

The waiting was the hardest part. I didn’t sleep for two days. I kept looking at the empty shed in the backyard. It felt so hollow now. I realized that the value of those tools wasn’t in the metal or the wood. It was in the trust I had placed in the wrong person.

Two days later, the post office tracking told me the letter was delivered. I waited by the phone. I expected him to call and beg or maybe even scream.

I was ready for anything. I had the printouts organized in a binder.

The phone finally rang at six in the evening. It was Kevin. I let it ring four times before I picked it up. I didn’t say hello. I just held the receiver and waited for him to speak first.

“Aunt Martha, I think there has been some kind of a misunderstanding,” he said. His voice sounded thin. He wasn’t the confident nephew who showed up with a thermos anymore. He sounded like a child who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

I let the silence hang there for a long time. I wanted him to feel the weight of it. “There is no misunderstanding, Kevin,” I said. My voice was steady. I was surprised at how calm I felt.

“I can explain the pricing,” he started, but I cut him off.

“I don’t want an explanation,” I said. “I want the rest of the money in my account by Friday morning.”