I did, a little, mourn her.

She had been generous and patient and hopeful, and those aren’t bad things to be; she’d just aimed all of them at a person who fed on them.

Closing that door was the kindest thing I ever did for her.

It just didn’t feel kind.

It felt like the end of something, which it was.

Chapter 16 — A Foundation Can’t Be Evicted

Eighteen months later, the morning light comes through the sunroom of my house and lies across a desk covered in architectural drawings — the plans for my firm’s expansion, a second office, a thing I am building with my own name on it and no one’s permission required.