Gregor Saal landed at nine forty in the morning, two days after Noa's return from Zurich, on a flight she hadn't known he'd booked until Dmitri texted her the confirmation with no commentary attached, which was, she'd come to understand, Dmitri's version of expressing relief. She was in her office reviewing the latest restructuring paperwork when the notification came through, and something in her chest loosened slightly at the sight of it, the particular relief of a gamble paying off that she hadn't let herself fully believe in until the moment it actually did.
Kieran met Gregor alone first, which felt right, twelve years of shared history deserving a conversation that didn't have an audience, and Noa stayed at her desk and tried to focus on shell entity paperwork that kept blurring at t
