I stepped through the open glass door and sat down next to him on the wooden terrace bench.

“The framing crew gets here Monday morning at seven,” Theo said.

“The glass panels come in from the fabricator in San Jose on Wednesday,” I said.

“That gives us two full days to clear the brush along the western lot line,” he said.

I had come back to San Diego and closed on the coastal lot with my own cleared money.

I had refused to leak Spencer’s diagnostic files to the financial press and chose instead to let the corporate board handle his removal quietly.

Spencer lost his executive role at Aldridge Luxe and Rosalind retired from public life, leaving Brielle to seek support on her own through family court.

I sat next to Theo on the terrace of our new design studio as the sun sank below the ocean horizon.

“The paperwork is done, and the new work starts today,” Theo said.

I looked out through the open window as the sunlight faded over the calm water.