“What did you do, Julian?” I asked, keeping my voice as flat as possible.

The rain beat harder against the Maine cottage window.

“You think you are safe up there in the middle of nowhere,” he said, his breath hitching.

“The board called an emergency meeting this morning, Elena.”

“I know,” I said.

“They took my keys,” he whispered.

“They locked my database access before I even walked into the lobby.”

“They forced me to sign the resignation letters, Elena.”

“All of it. Twenty years of work, gone in twenty minutes.”

I held the phone to my ear, watching a single droplet run down the glass.

“You brought this on yourself,” I said.

“No,” he snarled. “You brought this on us.”

“There is no ‘us’ anymore, Julian.”

“You do not understand the half of it,” he said. “Martin is panicking.”

“He should be,” I said.

“Isabel gave your lawyer everything, didn’t she?” he asked, his voice cracking.

I remained silent.

“She is a coward,” he spat. “She wanted the apartment, she wanted the trips, and now she is saving her own skin.”