“I understand,” I told her. “Thank you for saying it. That will not be acceptable anymore—not from him, not from anyone.”

And I meant it.

Daniel changed too, though more slowly. At first he resisted every adjustment. Pride doesn’t surrender gracefully. But over time, his outbursts became less frequent. He listened more in meetings. Spoke less. Occasionally, he even asked questions instead of pretending to already know the answers.

Grief strips people down. Some grow harder. Others grow more thoughtful. I’m still not sure which one Daniel became. Perhaps both.

We never became friends. That would have been too large a lie for either of us. But we found a strange kind of coexistence, tied not by affection, but by love for the same woman.

With part of the profits—profits I finally had the power to direct—I founded an organization.

I named it simply: “Laura.”

Not “The Laura Foundation.” Not some elaborate title. Just her name.

The first time I saw it printed on the glass door of our modest office, it hit me harder than I expected. Her name, simple and visible, felt like a way of carving her into the world so she could not be erased.