The air conditioning hummed, blowing cold air through the vents above us.

“You’re stripping my shares?” Ethan asked.

“Every single one,” Arthur said.

“They will be held in escrow pending the outcome of the federal investigation.”

“You can’t leave me with nothing,” Ethan said.

He looked at me then.

His eyes were wide, bloodshot at the corners.

He was looking for the wife who had smoothed over his mistakes for fifteen years.

I did not move a muscle.

I kept my face perfectly still.

“Clara,” he whispered. “Tell him.”

“I have nothing to say to you, Ethan,” I said.

My voice sounded steady, far steadier than I felt inside.

“You did this to yourself.”

Outside the glass wall of the conference room, the lights of the city were beginning to blink on.

The sky was a bruised purple.

A siren wailed in the distance, growing louder as it approached the building.

Ethan walked toward the window, his movements stiff.

He looked down at the street below.

“There are three cars,” he said.

His voice had lost its anger.

Now it was just empty.