Now I have one.”

Nathaniel moved to the doorway beside me.

Malcolm called after him, his voice suddenly hard.

“If you walk out over this, remember who’s funding your projects.”

Nathaniel paused.

Five years earlier he would have turned back to negotiate.

This time he said, “Then I’ll find out what I can build without you.”

We left together, not reconciled, not allies exactly, but no longer pretending the man in the portrait-lined house could decide everybody’s future.