I had my mother flown in from Atlanta. I had She stopped steadied. It wasn't just personal. It was public. And the reason he gave in the letter was that he didn't think I was capable of making him a priority.
That my career would always come first. That I was too driven to be a real partner. Malcolm was quiet. And the worst part, she said, is that I spent two years trying to figure out if he was right. That landed quietly.
Malcolm felt the weight of it. He wasn't. Malcolm said, "You don't know that. I've worked with you for 3 years. I've seen how you operate.
The way you show up for people, not just professionally, the way you follow through. He paused. And I know for a fact that you have been quietly funding scholarship programs for kids in the North Charleston community. Kids whose parents work in the neighborhoods where we build anonymous donations. Vivian, nobody asked you to do that.
Nobody knows about it. She went very still. How do you know about that? She asked carefully. A woman named Dorothy Green.
She runs the community center on Market Street. She tracks every donation, every grant, every fund. She's thorough. He looked at her. She mentioned the Sinclair fund to me about 8 months ago.
Said it had changed 15 families in the last 2 years. I asked her if Vivian Sinclair knew about the fund. She said, and I'm quoting, that woman started it. Viven said nothing. Her jaw was set, but something behind it was shifting.
Why didn't you tell me? Malcolm asked. Because it wasn't about being seen, she said quietly. It was just the right thing to do. Right.
Malcolm nodded slowly. So when Ethan Blake says you're incapable of caring about anything outside your own ambition, you have 15 families in North Charleston. Who would like a word? Something flickered across Vivian's face. Something complicated.
Relief and grief braided together in a way that Malcolm recognized because he'd worn that same expression himself plenty of times. I didn't come down here because of Ethan, she said. Not really. I know that in my rational mind. He doesn't have power over me.
Not like that. She paused again. But seeing him with someone new, seeing that easy smile, and knowing that he got to walk away clean while I spent 2 years second-guessing everything I am, her voice caught just slightly. She caught it right back. I just wanted him to think for 5 minutes that I was okay, that I'd moved on, that someone wanted to be next to me.