Chapter 39 Building Trust

• The transfer of the Lin Pharmaceuticals patents was not a grand event. There was no ceremony, no press release. It was a sterile transaction conducted by lawyers in a room far from the medical unit that had become our world. An email confirmation from my newly retained attorney—a sharp, no-nonsense woman named Clara who specialized in untangling corporate knots—was the only evidence it had occurred. *Assets successfully repatriated. Awaiting your instruction.*
• The words should have felt like a victory. In many ways, they were. My father’s legacy, however diminished, was back where it belonged. But the feeling was hollow, a echo of a triumph that should have been celebrated a decade ago with my father by my side. Instead, it was a brick laid on the foundation of a new, uncertain structure being built between Alexander Sterling and me. A structure with no blueprint.
• His gesture had shifted something fundamental in our stalemate. It was an act that required him to see me not as an obstacle or a possession, but as a person with a history and a right to what was hers. It was the first thing he had ever given me that didn’t come with strings attached. The absence of manipulation was as disorienting as the act itself.