Early enough that the room was still full of people looking toward the entrance.

The driver opened my door.

I stepped out in emerald and diamonds.

For one second, I thought about Terrence.

Whenever I had been nervous before entering a difficult room, he had always said something ridiculous enough to make me laugh.

This time, there was no joke.

So I went in alone.

I found Eleanor near the bar.

She was speaking with Howard and several other couples.

Dark blue gown.

Champagne glass.

Perfect control.

Then she saw me.

Her sentence stopped in the middle.

Across the room, Chloe noticed me too.

Her glass tilted slightly in her hand.

Howard followed their gaze and became completely still.

I crossed the room.

Eleanor recovered quickly.

She had spent a lifetime learning how to control her expression.

“What are you doing here, Audrey?”

She kept her voice low.

Then her eyes traveled over my dress.

“Who did you trick into paying for that?”

For six months, I had imagined this moment.

I had prepared cruel answers.

Clever answers.

Cold answers.

Standing there, I suddenly didn’t need any of them.

“I came to tell you about the Robert Terrence Washington Memorial Fund.”

Eleanor’s face changed.

“I’m establishing it through the holding company Terrence built.”

I paused.

“In its first year, its funding will exceed the annual operating budget of this foundation.”

The room around us became quiet.

“I thought you deserved to hear that from me before you read about it tomorrow.”

Eleanor stared at me.

“What are you talking about?”

“Terrence built something separate from all of you.”

I kept my voice calm.

“You didn’t know because he did not want you to know.”

Howard watched me closely.

“He understood this family.”

I continued.

“And he wanted what he created protected from it.”

Eleanor’s champagne glass stopped trembling.

“I’m going to protect what he built.”

“And I’m going to use it for the things he actually cared about.”

Howard looked at me for a long moment.

Then he said quietly,

“He was always the genuine one.”

It was the most honest sentence I had ever heard from him.

I didn’t stay for dinner.

I had said what I came to say.

On the drive home, I asked the driver to take the road past the Washington estate.

The lights were on.