She asked me to promise I wouldn't confront anyone alone again, and I promised. We spoke about the children for a while afterward, about a school play and a missing front tooth, until the world felt less narrow. When I hung up, I realized how much of my energy had gone into keeping other people from seeing that I was scared. Being methodical had helped me protect the facts. It did not exempt me from being human.
The township supervisors announced a public meeting to review the access dispute and facilitate settlement talks. Before it happened, Kent called with bad news. Darlene's supporters on the HOA board had removed him from the treasurer position after accusing him of damaging the association's reputation. He sounded more exhausted than angry. He said he had preserved the records he was lawfully entitled to keep and arranged to provide them through his attorney to the homeowners' audit committee.
"I tried to raise concerns internally," he told me. "They called it disloyalty."
"You were doing your job."
"I know. But it doesn't feel very rewarding right now."
He later provided a more complete accounting to the independent reviewer the residents had engaged. It showed eighteen months of four-thousand-dollar consulting payments to Darlene, totaling seventy-two thousand dollars, plus a series of contracts involving relatives or close associates. The review estimated that roughly two hundred thousand dollars in payments merited further examination for inadequate approval, inflated prices, or conflicts of interest. It did not declare the entire amount stolen. Andrea verified several significant transactions and published a follow-up that made the distinction clear.