It’s difficult to accept that you’ll never get back something that was stolen from you. If your best friend stole $500 from you and refuses to pay you back, you might think for one solitary second that if they just apologized, admitted they were wrong, and paid you back in full with interest, your relationship would totally go back to the way it was. But in reality, that is probably not going to cut it. The $500 itself is incidental: the main thing that was stolen from you is your trust. Forgiveness must come from a place of genuine understanding and trust that they have changed. If that hasn’t happened, you’re likely to always be at least a little on edge with this person. That’s especially the case if they don’t take any steps to repent or apologize for their actions, which is likely to be the case in most fraud incidents.