Part 7

Spring arrived before the divorce agreement was ready. Under the proposed terms, an independent valuation would determine the price of Dominic’s interest. He could not transfer mine. The old account was replaced with one requiring documented approvals, and the hotel’s staff received clear instructions about who could sign contracts.

Elena asked whether she could remain on the board. I told her that her experience mattered, but so did her silence. She accepted the criticism and agreed to an oversight arrangement rather than asking me to overlook it.

Madison requested a meeting of her own. We chose a public café, with no photographers and no lawyers at the table. She said she had believed she was joining a business partnership and a relationship that had already ended. When she discovered the lie, she had come with me to the hotel because she wanted to hear Dominic answer us both.

“I still posted those pictures,” she said. “That part was mine.”

“Yes,” I answered. “It was.”

She told me she was rebuilding her company without the Langford contract. She had returned deposits from investors who had relied on Dominic’s promises and had hired an independent adviser. I thanked her for preserving the messages. Forgiveness was not a transaction, and neither of us tried to make it one.

Before leaving, she gave me a small envelope. Inside was the first photograph, the one I had dropped at Dominic’s door. She had collected it from the carpet after Denise took possession of the documents.

“I thought you might want to decide what happens to it,” she said.

I slipped it into my bag. This time, nobody else would decide what my story meant.