He came to my office the next morning, and he did not come alone.

He brought his mother, Eugenia, in her pearls and her certainty, and the company’s general counsel, a tired-looking man who clearly wished he were anywhere else.

Eugenia opened before anyone had sat down.

“This girl is extorting my son,” she announced to the room.

“You will hand over that recording, and you will apologize, and we will consider the matter closed.” Dalton set my engagement ring on the conference table between us, a small deliberate gesture; he had found the insurance certificate for it, I realized, and calculated that the sight of it would soften me, that sentiment would do the work his threats had not.

“You’re confused, Louisa,” he said gently, as if to a distraught witness.