And Dalton’s own employment contract, like every executive contract at that level, contained a morality-and-disclosure clause: a concealed relationship with a subordinate, retaliation against an employee, or dishonesty during due diligence could void his promotion and cancel every unvested share he was counting on.

He had spent a year condescending to my little charity.

He had never once done the reading on the woman he intended to marry.

Chapter 5 — The Guest Room

Catalina spent that first night in my guest room while my investigator arranged emergency housing through a confidential program we had used for other clients.

She sat on the edge of the bed with her hands around a mug of tea she did not drink, and slowly, in a voice that steadied as she went, she told me the rest of it.