Corporate governance was more complicated than the stories people told at dinner.

But the records did show something Preston had been eager for me to forget: my voting shares were never merely ceremonial.

He had spent years asking me to sign management proxies, each supposedly for convenience.

I had signed a limited proxy for a single refinancing meeting.

The newer document I located in the board portal claimed to grant him broad authority for three years.

The signature looked like mine, but one loop on the H was wrong.