My attorney took the flash drive and reopened the settlement.

The offshore accounts were real, and substantial, and Kingston had concealed them during the divorce — which is not merely ungenerous but unlawful, a fraud on the court, and the court did not treat it gently.

He was ordered to pay restitution for the hidden assets and penalties on top of them.

At the firm, where a reputation is the only asset that truly matters, the story did what stories do, and he resigned quietly a month later rather than be asked.

Without Ione’s family, without the marriage he’d staged to launch the next phase of his life, and saddled now with court-ordered debt, the polished surface he had spent his whole life maintaining simply stopped holding.

The money mattered more than I want to admit, and I will not pretend otherwise for the sake of sounding above it.