One of his oldest business partners confronted him in his office.

“You’ve spent decades building your reputation. You’re risking all of it for a woman you’ve known three days.”

“If protecting an abused mother costs me my reputation,” Richard said, “then my reputation was never worth having.”

“If the donors walk—”

“Then they were investing in appearances, not principles.”

That evening he laid out what we were facing. “Margaret’s lawyers will argue you have no stable home. They’ll try to remove the girls while the criminal investigation runs.”