I didn’t want revenge.

I wanted the truth to be visible and the law to do its ordinary work.

So every existing contract was honored to the letter.

What vanished were only the things Ivan had never earned — the automatic renewals, the informal backing, the special credit guarantees, the suppliers who’d shaved their prices for the pleasure of being near my family’s name.

For the first time in his life, Ivan’s company had to stand in the open market on its own merits, and its own merits, it turned out, were thin.

Banks reassessed their risk.