At my birthday party, my husband tied me to a ceiling beam and wh*pped me thirty times because I had stained his mistress’s dress. “Maybe now you’ll learn your place,” he laughed while everyone watched. I didn’t cry. When they finally cut me down, I picked up my phone and called my five brothers. “Make his entire family beg for mercy,” I whispered. Then the front gates suddenly slammed shut.

“And you believed him?”

“I didn’t know what to believe.” He looked at me.

“I didn’t know what to do with it.

So I—” He stopped.

“You did nothing,” I said.

He didn’t deny it.

“You found evidence that your father had destroyed a man’s life and career, and you put the file back in the drawer and said nothing.”

“I was trying to figure out the right way to—”

“There was a right way,” I said.

“You chose not to take it.”

Garrett put a hand on Isaac’s arm.

“Isaac, you don’t have to—”

“I know,” Isaac said.

He moved his arm away from Garrett’s hand.

“Flora, I’m not here to negotiate.

I told Garrett that this morning.

I’m not asking you to drop the filing.

I’m not asking you to protect my father.” He looked at me directly.

“I’m asking if there’s anything I can do to help you finish this.”

The room was very quiet.

Julian looked at me.

I looked at Isaac.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because what he did to Raymond Holt is wrong.

What he’s been doing for eleven years is wrong.” He paused.

“And what I did to you last night is wrong.”

He said it plainly.

No performance.

No calculation that I could see.

“That doesn’t undo it,” I said.“I know.”

“The marks on my wrists don’t disappear because you’ve decided to be honest now.”

“I know that too.”

“Then why are you here, Isaac?

What do you actually want from this conversation?”

He looked at the table for a moment.

Then back at me.

“I want to know if I’m a man who can still do the right thing,” he said.

“Even now.

Even after everything.” He paused.

“I think that’s something I need to find out.”

I studied him.

Four years of marriage.

Four years of learning to read the small signals — when he was performing, when he was afraid, when he was calculating.

This felt like none of those things.

This felt like a man sitting in the wreckage of everything he thought he was and trying to find something solid to stand on.

It didn’t change what he had done.

But it changed what I thought might be possible.

“Tell Julian everything you know about your father’s financial structure,” I said.

“Every conversation.

Every document you saw.

Every name he mentioned.

All of it.”

Isaac looked at Garrett.

Garrett said, carefully, “That could have significant implications for—”

“I know,” Isaac said.

He looked back at me.

“All right.”

“And Isaac.” I stood.

“Don’t do it for me.Do it because Raymond Holt’s children watched their father fight alone for nine years.

Do it for them.”

I picked up my bag and walked to the door.

“Flora,” Isaac said.

I stopped but didn’t turn around.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“For last night.

For all of it.

I know that’s not enough.”

“No,” I said.

“It’s not.”

I walked out.

Julian followed thirty seconds later.

In the elevator, he looked at me.

“That was not what I expected,” he said.

“No,” I said.

“Me neither.”

“Do you believe him?”

I thought about it.

“I believe he found the file.

I believe he did nothing.

I believe he’s frightened enough now to tell the truth.” I looked at the elevator doors.

“Whether that makes him a good man or just a scared one, I genuinely don’t know.”

Julian nodded slowly.

“His testimony, if he gives it fully, will significantly strengthen the case against Arthur.”

“I know.”