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“Her husband is my client. I invited all of my clients, which always include their significant others. She was his plus one.”

“He’s still your client?” Joy asked. “Even after this?”

“No,” said Bobby. “He pulled the contract, which he has every right to do, and he’s been on a media bliss ever since the story broke. It’s all about how William betrayed him and how it’s everybody’s fault except for his wife’s.”

“He’s standing by her then?” William asked.

“Completely,” said Bobby.

William nodded. “Good.”

Joy looked at him. Why would he care? Or, she wondered, was he in love with Diana Davenport? She never thought to ask him that since he claimed to have never been in love with anyone except for her. But how could she believe that now?

“But the fact that he’s blaming you,” Bobby continued, “and the fact that he’s framing it as a betrayal of trust by his best friend, it’s getting out of control.”

William frowned. Joy did too. “They weren’t best friends,” Joy said.

“We weren’t friends at all,” said William.

“But that’s how he’s spinning it. He wants to make himself and his wife the sympathetic characters in his tall tales. But that’s not the worst of it.”

William and Joy looked at him. “What’s worse?” Joy asked.

Bobby looked at Jim. Jim picked up the ball next. “Arthur is going around telling everybody that will listen that SPR cannot be trusted with their secrets when their Founder and Chairman could not even be trusted with his wife.”

William was surprised. “He said that?”

“Verbatim,” said Jim.

“That certainly had a ripple effect,” said Bobby.

“A ripple?” asked Jim. “More like a tsunami!”

“Give me the numbers,” William ordered.

Jim looked at Bobby. “Twenty-five-hundred of our high-dollar clients have pulled their contracts. We’re talking hundreds of millions of dollars.”

“That many?” Joy was floored. “Why would so many pull out just because of what he said?”

“Arthur Davenport’s word carries a lot of weight,” Bobby said. “It’s like Warren Buffet personally telling you to not buy a particular stock. Would you buy it anyway? No. You’d be a fool to buy it. That’s what a negative word from Arthur Davenport can do for your business.”

“It’s not that it’s just a word,” said Joy. “Sleeping with the man’s wife is more than just a word.”

That stung. So much so that Bobby and Jim noticed that William had a visceral reaction to what Joy said.

“Well that’s the problem,” said Jim. “Isn’t it, young lady? It’s way more than just a mere word. But thank God we aren’t bleeding yet.”

That made no sense to Joy. “Hundreds of millions of dollars gone in contracts and we aren’t bleeding yet?”

“SPR is responsible for in excess of twenty-five thousand high-dollar contracts. But you’re right: Losing nearly ten percent of our profit margin is a big damn deal. But we can sustain it for now.”

“When does it get to be unsustainable?” Joy asked.

“If we lose another ten percent, and they’re of the caliber of clients that already dumped us, then we’re in trouble.”

“By that point,” Bobby said, “the bleeding won’t be able to be stopped. By that point it’ll be out of our hands.”

“But what if that happens?” Joy said. “What if another ten percent pulls out? Then what?”