No sense arguing. Sarah had saved the company and, most important, everyone’s jobs. “You’re right. So why the hell did I agree to spend six weeks with his mother, who hates me, and pretend that all the things I allowed her and the world to believe are really true?”

“Tell. Her. The. Truth.” Abby held her hands out and let them fall. “What difference does it make now? He’s gone. You shouldn’t have to pay for his mistakes and misdeeds forever.”

Sarah didn’t see an upside to revealing Sean’s true character. “He was everything to her. The perfect son, who could do no wrong. I can’t take that away.” She understood Margaret in a way. “As a mother, I look at my boys and want to believe they’re perfect in every way. Let her have her untarnished memory of him. I wish for the boy’s sake he’d been that person.”

And telling Sean’s mom everything opened the door to the boys remembering things better left forgotten.

Abby let it go.

Sarah glanced at her calendar and worried about all the meetings she’d have to take remotely. “Did you call Margaret and give her the details about our arrival?”

Abby rolled her eyes again. “Yes. And Margaret wanted me to tell you”—she released a frustrated huff—“and I quote, ‘She could have taken five minutes between lunch with friends and spending Sean’s money to call me herself.’” Abby might get a headache from all that eye rolling.

“And so it begins.” Sarah waited for the tide of resentment to pass.

Abby made a disgusted face to let Sarah know what she thought about Margaret’s attitude.

Abby leaned over the desk and put her hand over Sarah’s. “I just wish, for once, someone gave you as much as you give to others. Only the good things you do in the name of the company are public knowledge. But that all changes at the benefit next month.” Abby gave her a mischievous smile, excited Sarah would be publicly celebrated—mostly against her will.

“I just want to focus on the job I love. I get people want to celebrate a woman in my position and that I’m a role model for young girls who want to be in the tech industry. But I hate doing press.”

“As co-CEO you should take credit for all you do and not let Evan hog the spotlight.”

“He can have it.” Sarah held the position so she had a say in how the company was run, but she left the majority of the public aspect of the CEO job to Evan, who knew how to run the company and loved being the face of Spencer Software.

She and Evan ran the company the way she’d hoped she and Sean would have done if Sean had been a different kind of man.

“Your new security program will innovate the market. And though everyone knows a woman is behind the bestselling Andy’s Antics games, the press and consumers can’t wait to find out that it’s really you behind the obscure photo and bio on the website.”