Sarah managed Harper’s growing firm from offices across the street. Paige, after cooperating fully with prosecutors, avoided criminal charges. She moved to Milwaukee, completed a financial compliance program, and began working for a nonprofit that taught young employees how to recognize workplace coercion.

Connor pleaded guilty to two federal charges. The newspapers that once celebrated him as a brilliant young investor reduced his entire empire to three paragraphs beneath his booking photograph.

The night of the East Harbor opening, the old Halston charity board held its winter gala inside the new training center. Many of the same people who had watched Harper’s humiliation attended.

This time, they approached her carefully. They praised her work. They asked for business cards. Some acted as though they’d always believed in her. Harper remembered every pitying smile from the autumn gala.

She also discovered she no longer cared.

Near the end of the evening, she stepped onto the harbor terrace. Snow drifted through the lights above the water. Roman stood by the railing in a black overcoat.