“There is no fixing this, Daniel,” I said. “You ruined my life. You tried to ruin Clara’s life.”

“I did it for us,” he said, his voice desperate. “I did it to protect our assets. To protect our future.”

“My future has nothing to do with you,” I said.

He took another step, his hands raised in a gesture of surrender.

“If Clara goes to the feds, they will indict me,” he said, his voice dropping to a whisper. “It will destroy the company. It will destroy everything I’ve built.”

I looked at him, feeling nothing but a profound sense of emptiness.

“You did that to yourself,” I said.

He fell to his knees in front of the coffee table, his hands grasping at the edge of the glass.

“Emily, please,” he said, looking up at me with wet eyes. “We can make a deal. A private settlement.”

I stepped back, away from his reaching hands.

“I’ll give you the gallery back,” he pleaded. “I’ll give you the Wabash building. I’ll give you whatever you want. Just help me stop Clara.”