When my younger sister texted me from outside my Arlington penthouse at 2:16 a.m., demanding the door code because she had arrived with her children and several suitcases, I thought she was joking. Instead, while I was in London on a government assignment, she used an old maintenance code to unlock my $640,000 home, smiled at the security camera, and proudly declared, “We live here now.” She believed our parents’ plan would work because I would never force two children onto the street, especially after years of paying their rent, repairs, and emergencies without complaint.

Watching through my security cameras, I heard my parents admit they expected my sister to stay long enough to claim legal protections, making it almost impossible for me to remove her. Then Paige walked toward my locked private office, grabbed a heavy fireplace tool, and smashed the electronic keypad, convinced she could force it open. The instant the keypad cracked, every light in the apartment shut off, every television displayed the same warning, and the private elevator began rising toward the penthouse. Paige suddenly realized she had broken into something far more important than a family apartment. The people stepping out of that elevator already knew exactly who I was.