Chapter 13
For some reason, that hurt her.
Perhaps she had expected rage because rage would make us partners in the disaster.
If I blamed her enough, part of me would still belong to her.
I walked to the door and opened it.
“We’re done.”
“You think ending this fixes anything?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
I looked at her.
“Because I finally understand what you were.”
Her face hardened.
“And what was that?”
“An excuse.”
She flinched.
Not because it was cruel.
Because it was unfair.
So I corrected myself.
“No. That’s not true.”
She waited.
“You were a choice.”
I swallowed.
“My choice.”
That was worse.
For both of us.
She left without another word.
The next morning, the board asked me to step aside from daily leadership.
Temporarily, they said.
Everyone knew what temporarily meant when confidence had already left the room.
I refused.
For three hours.
Then another financing call ended badly.
Another project needed cash.
Another partner wanted distance from my name.
By afternoon, Ben placed a folder on my desk.
“What’s this?”
“The financial exposure if you remain chief executive through the next quarter.”
I opened it.
Numbers.
Forecasts.
Probabilities.
The language I trusted more than people.
The numbers were merciless.
The scandal had not created the weakness.
It had removed the curtain.
The empire was not collapsing because I cheated on my wife.
It was collapsing because I had already stretched it thin, and now nobody trusted the man promising it would hold.
I closed the folder.
“What do you think I should do?”
Ben stared at me.
“You’ve never asked me that.”
“I’m asking now.”
He looked down at the folder.
“Step aside.”
I nodded slowly.
“And after that?”
“Go see your son.”
“If Clara lets me.”
“Yes.”
The old me would have hated that answer.
The new me hated that I deserved it.
Chapter 4: The woman who stopped waiting
I saw Noah eleven days after Clara left.
Eleven days is not a long time.
Unless your child is six weeks old.
Then eleven days is an era.
Babies change while you are looking at them.
I had already missed so much while living in the same house.
Now every day felt like a punishment measured in ounces, breaths, expressions I would never see again.
The meeting was arranged through our solicitors.
Neutral place.
Private room.
Clara would bring Noah.
I arrived forty minutes early.