A redesign of executive authority so that no single person could gather the kind of quiet power I had allowed Daniel to hold.

I watched faces around the table as the proposals landed.

Some directors looked relieved.

One looked irritated, as if stronger controls were an insult to his era.

I did not tailor the policy to soothe him.

A company that shapes its rules around the comfort of the people who failed to notice a problem will fail again.

After the vote, Eleanor closed her notebook.

“This is the first meeting in a long time that sounded like your mother’s company,” she said quietly, not as theater, only as fact.