He pleaded guilty in the end — tax evasion and corporate fraud, three years in a state facility, to avoid a longer sentence at trial.

Sabrina took a plea of her own: probation, and a permanent bar from ever working in corporate procurement again.

One morning a message from Lorna appeared on my desk: Final decree signed by the judge today.

You’re officially free, Simone. I sat with that a moment, and felt something I can only describe as a deep, settled peace move through me.

On the corner of my desk sat a small cardboard box, and in it, the framed photograph Roman had once set on my grandmother’s console in place of our wedding picture — the one of him and Sabrina at the restaurant opening.