Marcus is already at the kitchen table when we walk in.
Laptop open. Three folders are spread out. Two empty coffee cups were pushed to the side. He has been here for at least two hours, and Diana is not with him, and that alone tells me everything I need to know about how serious the next hour is going to be.
He looks up when we come through the door. He looks at Caden first, a fast check, the kind between people who know each other well enough to read a face in under a second. Then he looks at me.
Something in his expression makes a decision.
He says she stays in the room for this.
Caden says I know.
I put my bag down. I sit at the table. I pull the nearest folder toward me, and Marcus does not stop me, and that is the whole of the invitation I need.
***
He walks us through it wi
