Meredith described the factory’s condition when the investment arrived: the unpaid bills, frightened workers, and equipment that could not be shut down safely without damaging production.

She spoke with an authority I had never heard her use in my boardroom.

“Those employees were people,” she said.

“Some of them have spent twenty-five years there.

They weren’t background details in a transaction that happened to make a marriage convenient.”

One director, Leonard Finch, looked embarrassed.

He had been the loudest advocate for my marrying to demonstrate “stability.” Now he admitted that Vivian had told him Meredith had consented to a strictly business relationship and did not want me to mistake her gratitude for affection.

“And what did you tell my wife?” I asked him.