He didn’t answer immediately.
He set down his pen, which was the first thing, and then he sat back in his chair and looked at me with those grey eyes that were doing the thing they did when he was deciding how much ground to concede.
“Sit down,” he said.
“I’d rather stand,” I said.
He looked at me for another moment, then nodded once, accepting the terms. “Nadia brought your father’s name to me eight months ago. She presented the debt, your situation, the arrangement as a solution to the inheritance clause.” He held my gaze without flinching. “I knew she was involved in the construction of it. What I told you was true, that I didn’t know about Vantage Meridian. But I knew about Nadia’s role.”
The words landed with the specific weight of a confirmation you already suspected but hoped w
