He did not know, asking me to go downstairs, that he was speaking to a woman who had already left — that the person standing in front of him in the ruined dress was, as far as the two of them were concerned, a formality.

The relationship had ended a full breath before he finished his sentence.

Everything after was just the closing paperwork, and I have always been very good at paperwork.

Chapter 8 — Acquisition Closed

The Vantage Capital admin portal glowed up at me from my palm, and there was one new line at the top, time-stamped 9:14 that morning: ACQUISITION CLOSED.

My firm had completed the purchase I had set in motion weeks earlier — the distressed debt tied to Tidewater Leisure Holdings, the entity that sat, like a thin roof, over the Whitcombe summer house and the very yacht beneath our feet.

I had not bought it for revenge.

I want that on the record too, because it would be a neater story if I had, and it would not be true.