CHAPTER 12: The Board Abandons Its Champagne

The Alden Foundation board had gathered that night to approve Isadora's new children's wellness campaign.
The irony became unbearable even to men who made fortunes ignoring irony.
The chairman approached Elliot with a face drained of ceremony. "We should move this into a private room."
Elliot glanced at his son, at Mira, then at Isadora standing beneath the chandelier like a portrait beginning to peel.
"No. The campaign was public. The lie was public. The correction can begin here."
A reporter near the rear wall lowered her phone when Elliot's security looked her way, but she had already heard enough to know the city's morning pages would not belong to Isadora.
Elliot gave orders the way other men gave apologies: clean, fast, impossible to interrupt.
Legal counsel would freeze all foundation documents. The clinic transport would be canceled. The nursery archive would be reviewed. Isadora's access to Leo's school, medical files, and staff schedule would be suspended before midnight.
Isadora whispered his name.
Elliot did not turn.
For once, she was not the center of his room.