The letter from Singapore arrived on a Tuesday afternoon by registered courier, three weeks early.
The accompanying note from the law firm explained: the volume of legal activity around the Vale estate had triggered an early-release clause in the original instructions. Edmund Vale had anticipated, with the precision of a man who had planned for every contingency, that if legal proceedings of sufficient gravity arose, waiting for a specific date would serve no one.
Rowan signed for it himself. He carried it to the study. He sat down. He looked at the sealed envelope for a long time.
Then he went to find Elara.
She was in the kitchen, which had become her default working space in the last two weeks, the kitchen table was bigger than her desk, she had told him, and the light was better, a
