Fury he could have argued with.

But George had built a career and raised a family on the simple principle that you keep your word and you keep your receipts, and he had just quietly demonstrated that his son had abandoned the first and forgotten the second, and there was no cross-examination in the world that answered that.

Chapter 8 — Something Else

Jason stood silent for a long moment. Then he reached into his jacket and took out a folded sheet of paper, and Claire understood, before he said a word, that he had come prepared to lose — that under the confidence he had walked in with something contingency-planned, the way he planned everything.

He offered to return a portion of the assets. To raise the child support. To sign a quick agreement, today, and put this behind them. Claire did not move.

“Why now?” she asked. “For eight months you told me it was all closed. Final. Nothing to discuss. Why are you sitting here offering me things this morning?”

Jason’s jaw worked.