I turned the complete evidence over to the state authorities and the foundation’s independent oversight board, through Bridgette, and let the lawful process do its work — the restitution, the removal of Constance from the foundation, the appointment of honest trustees, the return of the diverted money to the children it had been stolen from.

That was the outcome that mattered: not the ruin of a family, but the repair of a broken promise to sick children, made whole at last, exactly as Alistair had wanted.

And I did not refuse to speak to Astrid, or even, in time, to Kieran.

Astrid and I became, through the strange crucible of it all, something like real friends — the two women the family had tried to frame and use, bound now by the shared experience of having been protected, from beyond the grave, by the one Abernathy who had kept his integrity.

And Kieran, once the truth was out and there was nothing left to hide or protect, became a quieter and more honest man than I had known in eight years of marriage.