Tuesday morning broke with the same gray persistence as Monday, but the atmosphere in the house felt lighter. The threat of Julian Vane's article had dissipated like mist under a weak sun. I checked the news feeds over breakfast, scrolling through the headlines on my tablet while eating toast. The story was buried on page twelve of the online edition, relegated to the bottom of the feed. Questions Raised Over Charity Funding, the headline read. Below it, our statement was quoted in full. The lack of scandal was the story. There was no there there. The public, it seemed, was willing to believe the audit trails when they were presented clearly. The hunger for a scandal had been met with boring transparency, and the beast had gone back to sleep.
Marcus watched me scroll. He was drinking his
