The board strengthened controls that should have been stronger before.
Including controls around family-connected consultants.
PART 32
I accepted responsibility for that.
Not for Daniel’s choices.
For mine.
I had allowed personal trust to soften professional boundaries.
I had ignored smaller warning signs because acknowledging them would
have forced me to ask painful questions.
That did not make his conduct my fault.
It did mean I had something to learn.
My mother appreciated that distinction.
PART 33
One afternoon, she came into my office carrying the diamond bracelet.
“I don’t want it.”
“Mom.”
“I’m serious.”
“It’s yours.”
“No. It was always supposed to become yours.”
She placed it on my desk.
I looked at the diamonds.
For weeks, I had associated them with Chloe’s airport photograph.
Mom tapped the clasp.
“Don’t let those two rewrite what this means.”
PART 34
So I wore it to the next annual shareholders’ meeting.
