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For years, we lived under the comfortable delusion that a digital bank receipt was a valid substitute for a son’s devotion. We believed that wealth was a shield, and that as long as the wire transfers were consistent, the woman who gave us life was protected from the jagged edges of reality. We thought we were providing her with a sunset of peace; in reality, we were funding her nightmare.
Together, we had sent over $150,000 in five years. In the sterile, air-conditioned world of my Dubai office, that number represented a comfortable home in Mexico City, a stocked pantry, the best medical care, and perhaps a small garden where she could sit in the sun. We were “good children.” We were providing. Or so we told ourselves to silence the guilt of our five-year absence.
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