Tamsin knocked and came in with a thin portfolio and two pastries from the bakery downstairs, the way she did most mornings now that she ran my legal division.

“The receiver signed off,” she said, setting a croissant in front of me.

“The forfeiture’s closed.

Camden’s last equity in the Altura merger was liquidated yesterday to satisfy the support order and the child trust.

The Ravenel name has been struck from every primary portfolio in the state.”

I ran my thumb along the edge of the document and felt, settling over me, a deep and unfamiliar calm — no fury left in it, and no grief either, nothing of that white delivery-room night still burning.

A person who builds a fortress from the ground up always knows where the master key is hidden.