“You did not purchase the property.”
“My art is there.
My clothes are there.
My office is there.”
“Your personal property remains yours.”
His eyes narrowed.
“You changed the locks.”
“The trust terminated your independent access under the occupancy agreement this morning.
Building counsel delivered notice.
You can arrange supervised collection of personal belongings through Arthur.”
He stared at me as though I had suddenly begun speaking another language.
Last night, outside the theater, I had told Thomas I would be all right by morning.
I had not meant I would stop hurting.
Pain did not vanish because a lawyer filed documents.
I meant that by morning I would stop allowing the person who caused the pain to control the room around it.
Dominic rubbed both hands across his face.
Then he looked at Sierra.
It was astonishing how quickly passion disappeared when exposed to accounting.
“Did you know about any of this?” she asked him.
“Of course not.”
She stared at him.
“You told me you owned Stone Capital.”
“I run Stone Capital.”
“You said the penthouse was yours.”
“For God’s sake, Sierra.”
She pushed back from the table.
“You said you were going to make changes after last night.”
Dominic froze.
Arthur’s eyes lifted.
So did mine.
“What changes?” I asked.
Sierra realized too late that she had said more than she intended.
Dominic’s voice went low.
“Don’t.”
She looked from him to me.
Last night she had smiled at me like a victor.
Now she looked frightened.
“He said after the gala there wouldn’t be any reason to keep pretending,” she said.
Dominic struck the table with his palm.
“Enough.”
The sound cracked through the room.
Nobody moved.
Arthur spoke carefully.
“Pretending about what?”
Sierra swallowed.
“About his marriage.
About who was really going to be beside him.
He said the company was entering a new era and he could put people he trusted where he wanted them.”
Dominic’s eyes closed.
That sentence mattered more than the kiss.
Not because it proved some elaborate criminal plot.
It did not.
But because it reinforced the exact governance problem the board was now investigating: Dominic had blurred personal loyalty and corporate authority until he could no longer tell where one ended and the other began.
He had thought being chief executive meant every institution around him was an extension of his appetite.
The board recessed for forty-three minutes.
Dominic paced in the adjoining conference room.
