The Light I Turned On

The project succeeded; the retainer doubled; and I incorporated Bristol Strategy, a boutique firm for growth and crisis work.

Before long the referrals came back with my name in them — not lovely hostess, not Warner’s supportive wife, but call Roslyn Bristol, she’s the sharpest mind in the city. The first time I heard it I locked my office door and cried, because it was just me.

My brain.

My worth.

I hadn’t understood, until it was gone, how much of me had been living underground.

For a decade I’d told myself I didn’t need the spotlight, that I was content to do the real work while Warner stood in the light and took the applause.