“You wouldn’t dare,” she hissed, her fingers curling into fists.

“I am your mother.”

“You will be the laughingstock of the airline when they find out you put your own family in jail.”

“I will tell everyone what you did.”

“I will tell them how you abandoned us.”

“You are a monster, Mark.”

“I am a man who has boundaries,” I said.

“And you have finally reached the end of them.”

I turned my back on her and walked through the heavy wooden gate, back into the quiet hallway.

I did not look back, even when she screamed my name.

I returned to Detective Harris’s office.

The paperwork was laid out on the metal desk, the white pages stark under the fluorescent light.

I sat down and took the heavy black pen Harris offered me.

My hand did not shake.

I signed my name on the line for the identity theft affidavit.

I signed the forgery complaint.

I signed the grand larceny charge.

With each signature, I felt a weight lifting from my shoulders.

“It is official,” Harris said, taking the papers back.