What she would not lend, later, was the rest of her name.

Sterling had arrived in her life twice, by marriage wreckage and by a stranger’s boarding pass, and she refused to treat that as a sign.

Coincidences are not contracts.

She kept Blaire as the name on the sanctuary letterhead and let lawyers keep the rest in files.

Luca offered, once, to put her on a board.

She said no.