I intended to remember it long after the incident itself became old news.

PART 7: The Call Connor Would Not Answer

Connor sent six messages before lunch.

The first said we needed to talk.

The second claimed he had been protecting the company.

By the fourth, he was asking whether I planned to “destroy his career over a misunderstanding.” The sixth said he loved me.

I wanted to believe there was a version of this story that made his choices less deliberate.

So I asked him to meet me in a conference room with glass walls and a neutral witness nearby.