Sitting in a courtroom to watch him receive his sentence would have kept me tethered to him for one more afternoon, made his downfall one more event in my life rather than his, and I was done, entirely done, giving the Vances my time.

So on the day of the sentencing, I went to work instead, to my own firm, with my own name on the door, and I built something, which is the thing I am good at, and I let the courtroom conclude the Vances’ story without me.

Their ending was theirs to endure.

Mine had already begun.

Their social standing, their wealth, their arrogant empire, all of it, was erased.

The politicians who had shared their stage disavowed them.