“You only have to survive today.”

Two weeks later, I finally moved into one of Terrence’s properties.

A quiet house in the county.

I had never seen it before.

He had purchased it two years earlier and renovated it secretly.

When I walked inside, I stopped in the hallway.

The books on the shelves were books I would have chosen.

The kitchen was arranged the way I liked kitchens arranged.

There was a reading chair by a window overlooking a garden.

Even the small details felt like me.

Terrence had designed a home for a future he hoped I would never need.

That was when I finally cried.

Not like a nurse.

Not quietly.

Not carefully.

I sat on the floor and grieved my husband like there was nobody left to impress.

When I was finished, I washed my face.

Then I called Marcus.

“Tell me everything.”

It took weeks to understand what Terrence had built.

The holding company controlled significant interests in three environmental technology businesses.

Two had already gone public.

The third was preparing to.

There were properties across four states.

Private equity positions.

Investment accounts.

Partnership interests.

Marcus placed the conservative value near $500 million.

“Conservative?” I repeated.

He didn’t smile.

“Yes.”

Terrence had started building much of it years before we met.

After we married, he restructured almost everything.

“He wanted you to have unquestioned authority,” Marcus explained.

“Did his family know?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

Marcus took off his glasses.

“Terrence believed the Washington family had a habit of seeing value as something to acquire rather than something to create.”

He paused.

“He didn’t want them acquiring what he had built.”

I thought about Eleanor.

Howard.

Chloe holding her phone over my muddy suitcase.

“What do I owe them?”

Marcus looked at me.

“Legally?”

“Yes.”

“Nothing.”

The prenup protected Washington family assets.

Terrence’s private estate was completely separate.

I nodded.

“Then I know what I want to do.”

I began restructuring the companies.

I increased funding for environmental programs Terrence had supported.

I created a foundation in his name.

I hired people who had worked with him and believed in the same work.

Then I learned to run a company.