I was not there, and I did not want a report of his face when he understood.

Blaise offered to tell me how it went and I asked him not to.

Part of that was the wall Dorothea had built — I needed to stay clear of the operational side so no one could ever say I’d steered it — but part of it was simpler, and more personal.

I did not want to watch.

I had already spent three years watching Zane, reading him, managing him, arranging my own face around his moods, and the whole point of what I was doing was to stop.

The audit was not a show I had staged for my satisfaction.