Chapter 7 - PRESTON HAD BEEN LYING TO HIMSELF BEFORE HE LIED TO MEHe admitted this during an attorney-supervised conversation.
“I knew her invoices were thin.”
“How thin?”
“No deliverables sometimes.”
“And you approved them?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She got results.”
There it was.
Corporate temptation in three words.
She got meetings.
Accelerated permits.
Solved objections.
People stopped asking how.
Preston said:
“I thought she had relationships.”
“She did.”
“I didn’t think she was paying anyone.”
“Did you ask?”
“No.”
“Why?”
He stared at the table.
“Because I didn’t want an answer that made me stop using her.”
That was probably his most important confession.
Willful blindness is not the same as direct knowledge.
But it can still carry consequences.
In marriage too.
He did not know Sloan’s whole scheme.
He knew enough discomfort existed to avoid looking.
He did the same with our money.
May you like
With me.
With everything.
