Chapter 9 - Reclaiming the Home
We spent the next three months renovating the house.
Clara didn't want to live in a place that reminded her of Mark and Brenda, so we stripped it down to the studs. We ripped up the dark carpets and installed bright, warm hardwood floors. We painted the walls a cheerful, soft yellow. We turned Mark’s oppressive home office—the room where the fraud began—into a beautiful, expansive playroom for Leo.
Clara also found a new purpose. She went back to school to renew her nursing license, but this time, she specialized in psychiatric care, wanting to help women and children who had survived domestic and financial abuse.
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One evening, I came over for dinner. The house smelled like roasting garlic and fresh bread. Leo was running around the living room, chasing a new golden retriever puppy Clara had adopted for him. The sound of his uninhibited, joyful laughter filled the space.
It was a home again. Not a prison.
