A man does not enjoy standing before his own staff and dismantling his own authority, admitting he leapt to a cruel conclusion about a loyal employee.

But that cost was exactly the point.

The humiliation he had handed Espe had cost her something; the least he could do was pay a matching price to give it back.

He had learned, somewhere in that long night, that real accountability is not comfortable, that if an apology costs you nothing it probably isn’t one, and that the measure of whether you mean it is whether you’re willing to be as exposed in the repair as the other person was in the wound.

She held his eyes a long moment.

“I accept your apology, Mr.