That version of his life had been four months and one wedding away.

It had been, in every practical sense, the likelier outcome.

And the only reason it had not come to pass — the single thread on which everything else had hung — was that one overlooked, underpaid, invisible woman had found some payment records while cleaning a study, and had understood what they meant, and had decided, at the risk of her own life, to do something about it rather than look away.

She could have looked away.