Chapter 36: A Secret Picture

The deal was done. A seven-year deal that, in the final handshakes and shining smiles, had the taste of an outright victory for Joe Brian. The celebration was a lavish, stifling one in the hotel's grand ballroom. Champagne bubbled, canapés circulated on silver trays, and the air vibrated with the congratulatory chatter of the powerful. Brian was in the middle of it, a steady star in a revolving galaxy of admirers. He had never once asked Davidson questions about graduation, about Sarah, about the trip. The door he had built in Alaska seemed to have been closed shut again, its very existence denied.

Davidson was a specter at the banquet. The vacuum in the negotiating room had intensified, an emptiness that no amount of cacophony and glitter could fill. He had courteous smiles in reserve, cryptic answers to questions about the "last-minute push," and slipped away deliberately from the crowd. He needed fresh air. He needed peace.

He returned to the recently abandoned conference room. The