Chapter 20
Sonya folded her hands.
"At minimum — the transfer is reversed, the prenup is voided, and he absorbs the legal costs." She paused.
"At maximum, depending on what the bar review finds and whether additional parties choose to file — we're looking at fraud charges, potential disbarment of his counsel, and civil liability."
"And his company?"
"His investors will have questions.
That tends to have its own consequences."
Celestine reached over and straightened the edge of the document on the desk.
A small, precise gesture.
The gesture of a woman who had been straightening things her entire life.
"What do you need from us?" she asked Sonya.
"From Derrick — a formal statement today.
From you — " Sonya paused.
"Actually, nothing.
You've already done what you needed to do."
Celestine looked at her.
"By showing up."
"By showing up," Sonya confirmed.
Gerald Whitmore's name appeared in the financial news the following Thursday.
A small item, buried in the business section, but it was there.
Derrick read the first paragraph.
Set his phone face-down on the desk.
He didn't read the rest.
He didn't need to.
---
## CHAPTER 11: The Things That Grow Back
Three months later, Celestine had her own room.
Not in a hotel.
Not in Mrs.
Patterson's back room.
In the spare bedroom of the apartment Derrick rented in the same city, on the eighth floor, with a window that faced east and caught the morning light at an angle she described as *exactly right.*
She had hung one thing on the wall.
The photograph.
The faded, creased one she had carried in the green cloth bundle for three days across two states.
The young woman holding the newborn baby.
Derrick had framed it.
May you like
She had said it didn't need a frame.
He had framed it anyway.
