The transition over the following weeks was smooth and orderly. Maya was appointed as interim corporate chair, ensuring that the hourly employees’ retirement accounts were fully restored and that operational decisions were handled with transparency and care. The young couple who purchased my parents’ home invited Claire and me over for tea a month later, showing us the careful restoration work they had already begun on the original woodwork and my father’s old workshop.

Sitting in that familiar room, watching the sunlight stream through the leaded-glass windows, I felt an extraordinary sense of peace. The past had been accounted for, the truth had been restored, and the future was finally entirely my own to write.