Alexander POV
I arrived at the church hall at nine forty-five, ninety minutes before Anna was due, because I wanted to sit in the room before anyone else arrived and understand the space.
It was a habit built across twelve years of litigation — arriving early, reading a room before the people who mattered walked into it. Where the light fell. Which chairs faced which angles. Where someone at the far end of the table would have sight-lines to both doors without appearing to watch either of them.
I took the chair at the far left. Notepad, two pens, recording device already tested and confirmed. I set them on the table in front of me and I waited.
Tobias had dropped me off and gone back to the street. His job today was the perimeter — the car, the exit route, the phone that would ring if
