If the review had come back clean, he would have kept his chair; I had told Blaise as much and meant it.

That it came back the way it did was not my doing.

I only insisted that the process be honest, and an honest process, pointed at what Zane had actually done, needed no help from me to arrive here.

That distinction is the only reason I can look at the outcome without flinching.

I did not ruin him.

I refused, for the first time in three years, to protect him from himself.