Reporters scribbled notes.
Phones appeared.
Messages were sent.
The story was already spreading.
Not because of money.
Because of irony.
Powerful people often fear irony more than loss.
Richard spent years insisting contracts protected him.
Now a contract threatened him.
One written by his own family.
One his own attorneys had included in the records.
One his own grandfather created.
The hearing adjourned shortly afterward.
As people filed from the room, Richard finally looked at me.
Really looked at me.
Not the obedient wife.
