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all I know.”
    Justin confirmed it with a nod.
    “Are you really quitting or just pulling my leg?”
    “I’ve shut down my office in London. You know my arrival here was delayed.”
    “Yes, but not why.”
    “I was in a research hospital in Chicago for a week, trying to understand what had gone wrong with my body. The two weeks after, I was in treatment in Arizona to build up my blood—something about electrolytes, minerals, vitamin levels.
    “I did a lot of soul searching and decided to quit my venture capital business entirely. I flew back to London, tied up loose ends, logged on to Facebook, and found Manda’s pleas for help.”
    “Didn’t the hospital make an effort to contact you?”
    “Yes, but I had turned off my phone and closed my office. The doctors had no way to reach me, except through Manda’s ingenuity with social media. The timing could not have been worse, and you have my most sincere apology.”
    Joel steadied himself with a deep breath. His voice wavered when he asked, “When you said you were tying up loose ends, did you think you were dying?”
    “No. I meant I needed to be done with empty pursuits. Don’t laugh, but on the flight to London, I thought about becoming a Buddhist monk, if there is such a thing. Then I saw Manda’s messages and knew what I needed—to be here with you and get right with myself.”
    “You used to thrive on your work,” Joel persisted.
    Justin nodded pensively. “I did thrive on it. Ten years ago, I was enjoying the good life in Switzerland with Alexa. We had some good years together. Then I saw she was betraying me. I moved back to London, drank heavily, dated smart, beautiful women, and worked. On the road I had my pick of women offered by my business partners. I became disgusted with myself, I won’t say why.
    “I took stock of what I had accomplished and saw that I wasn’t benefiting anyone but myself and the companies I represented. That’s an empty existence, Joel. I—”
    Justin jumped from the chair as the door to the hospital room burst open.
    Shauna juggled a heavy bag and a drink caddy with two tall espresso drinks.
    “Good woman!” Justin said heartily and offloaded the drinks. Shauna set down the bag on the tray table by Joel’s bed. Justin’s generous tip netted him a million-dollar smile from Shauna and an eye roll from Joel.
    “Since when is giving a tip cause for an eye roll?” he asked after the door closed.
    “She’s already been well compensated.”
    “Which I should have known, mea culpa .”
    “Just eat.”
    The salads consumed, Joel proposed, “Let’s hear more about this ‘disoriented’ feeling. I’m good for about fifteen minutes.”
    “I’ll sum it up in two sentences. I’m not who I was when I left here in my twenties. I’m not sure who I am now, and I don’t have my work.” He brightened. “But I have a challenge in front of me. You’ve entrusted me with cleaning up the mess at Tompkins College, and I will do my utmost in your place as trustee.”
    “You know what you’re dealing with.” Joel had already filled him in on the embezzlement at the expense of students, with collusion in high places. Plus the sexual exploitation of students by a few professors, and its widespread cover-up. “All of it needs to be cleaned up for the college to continue. Or those persons need to be fired and the college closed down.”
    “Agreed. But, Joel, what I do about the college will define me in Tompkins Falls. I’m sincere about wanting to live here long term. Closing the college is the simplest solution, but the worst for the town and for my reputation in Tompkins Falls.”
    Joel muttered, “Wish I’d never inherited the damn college.”
    “It’s been run by scoundrels from the day it opened. If you hadn’t the integrity you have, and if you hadn’t insisted on an investigation, it would go on as it always has.”
    “It has to stop, Justin. You have to stop it.” Joel’s distress alarmed Justin.
    “I