Winnie shrugged.

“Well, you’re the one who taught me to shade shadows right.” Ifeoma looked at Emeka; he gave the smallest nod.

She signed her name slowly, her hand trembling more than it ever had over any acquisition.

The trembling was the whole story, and Emeka saw Ifeoma register it herself — this woman who had signed billion-dollar acquisitions with a steady hand, undone by a school art form.

Because the acquisitions had never frightened her.

Money was money; a company was a company; she had grown up in that world and moved through it without a tremor.