And he nodded, and picked up his coat, and went out, and I have not seen him since and I do not expect to.

The watch came back four months later, by courier, to Estelle’s office, in its original box, with the third link from the clasp in a small envelope taped inside the lid, which I had kept in a drawer in 2021 and which he must have found when he packed.

There was no note.

I sold it in the November and gave the money to a legal aid clinic in Duval County that does family law, and I am aware that this is the kind of gesture people put in accounts like this one to look better than they are, and I am putting it in anyway because it is what I did and because the clinic sent a receipt and I have it.

Part Thirty-Four: Riverside

Giselle Marchetti’s business nearly went under and it did not, and the reason it did not is not inspiring and I am going to tell it accurately.