Some entries need explanations.”
“Brooke?”
“Her name appears on several itineraries.”
I closed my eyes.
The affair was painful.
The possibility that Preston had allowed company money, company travel, or company authority to support any part of it was different.
That belonged to everyone who trusted the business, not just me.
“Trace it,” I said.
At breakfast, Henry asked if his father was sick.
I put syrup on his pancakes and chose my words carefully.
“Dad made some choices that grown-ups have to talk about.”
“Is he in trouble?”
I looked into my son’s worried brown eyes.
“That is not something you need to carry.”
He nodded, though I knew he did not understand.
Before leaving for school, he placed the blue superhero mask beside my coffee cup.
“You can have this today.”
“Why?”
“Because you look tired.”
I kissed his forehead.
That nearly broke the restraint I had maintained since Brooke’s message.
But I kept it.
At 8:57, I entered the downtown headquarters of Whitaker Development.
Preston was already there.
So was Brooke.
She stood near his office in a cream blouse and fitted black trousers, looking nothing like the woman in the veil from the photograph.
When she saw me, her shoulders stiffened.
Then she lifted her chin.
She believed Preston had chosen her.
She believed that choice made her powerful.
Preston stepped out of his office.
“Why is she here?” he demanded.
Brooke looked at him.
I did too.
Interesting.
He had apparently expected to manage us separately.
“She works here,” I said.
“For the moment.”
Brooke’s face flushed.
“You don’t get to speak to me like that.”
Preston immediately moved closer to her.
The gesture was small, protective, and devastatingly revealing.
Several employees in the corridor pretended not to watch.
Yesterday, their attention would have humiliated me.
Today, witnesses mattered.
I turned toward the conference room.
“Nine o’clock.
You’re late if you keep standing there.”
Inside, Samuel had joined by secure video with the relevant corporate documents in front of him.
Members of the company’s governing board were present as well.
Preston stopped at the doorway.
“What the hell is this?”
“A review,” I said.
He looked around the table, then laughed.
“Of what? My marriage?”
“Your authority.”
