My eyes held the calm, impenetrable focus of a leader who had built her domain from the ground up.

And then the private side door opened, and Julian walked in, holding little Noah on his hip, fourteen months old now, a whirlwind of energy with his father’s dark, piercing eyes.

“Dada!” Noah shouted the instant he saw me, throwing his tiny arms out.

“Mommy’s working, little man,” Julian chuckled, passing our son into my waiting arms.

I kissed Noah’s soft cheek and breathed in the scent of baby shampoo and sunshine.

The Q1 earnings, I would tell the board in a few minutes, showed a twenty-two-percent increase in net revenue since we had divested from the tainted offshore holdings.