If the denial of a virtue yields greater value than the "virtue" itself, then it is no longer a virtue.
If a dying soldier is asking you whether his mother is happy, and you have no idea, what do you tell him? You tell him--- in honesty to his state of affairs, "Yes."
This is a direct case when Honesty is overcome by the Expediency of the Moment. Objectivist Ethics would seem to be flaunted, but here--as in your scenario--the context of a life-time has changed to a smaller one.
40 years is a very long time. The new values he would gain from Objectivism would fulfill and even exceed the values he would gain from a twisted family life. If reduced only to a year I would change my mind. (It took roughly 1 year for me to get engaged in Objectivism, and even then I enjoying widespread benefits from the get-go. )
