He could see the original invoice versions, the contradictory cost schedules, the dated notes documenting my questions, and the evidence that the buyer had requested explanations before walking away.

The documents didn’t show me conspiring to destroy the company.

They showed me attempting, repeatedly, to prevent a problem from becoming worse.

An attorney later told Elaine that Dennis had asked whether the records truly came from the ordinary files he’d once told me to organize.

They did.

The expensive watch he’d given me and the jewelry he’d warned me not to take had remained in our bedroom.

The most consequential thing I carried away was six years of patient attention that he had dismissed as an annoying hobby.