Vanessa cooperated with prosecutors.
Her testimony helped reduce her own sentence.
It also destroyed whatever loyalty still existed between her and Daniel.
Apparently true love becomes complicated when subpoenas arrive.
Rhodes Capital later purchased the legitimate assets of Mercer Strategic Systems through a court-supervised sale.
More than eighty employees kept their jobs.
The executives involved in the fraud were removed.
I insisted on preserving those positions.
Ordinary employees shouldn’t lose their livelihoods because the people running a company decide to steal.
Two years after that wedding, I stood barefoot on the back porch of our house while Emma ran across the lawn chasing fireflies.
Adrian handed me a glass of lemonade.
“You’re thinking again.”
“I do that occasionally.”
He laughed.
Emma suddenly raced toward us.
“Mommy! Daddy! Look!”
She held her hands together carefully.
A tiny firefly glowed between her palms.
We watched her open them.
The little light floated upward into the warm summer night.
