It was the most practical possible expression of love, and it was entirely in character, and it did, in the end, exactly what she built it to do.

She had been right about what I would lack.

It took me the better part of a decade and a ruined marriage to grow into the tool she left me.

Real power does not need an audience.

I understood it now.

I only wished she had lived to hear me say that I finally did.

Chapter 23 — The Ordinary End of the Day

At five o’clock I packed my briefcase, locked the office, and took the elevator down to the lobby.