Marcus left me alone with it. He closed his laptop, said “take the document, call me when you're ready,” and walked out without asking a single question I wasn't prepared to answer.
That was the thing about Marcus, he always knew the difference between a moment that needed talking through and one that needed to be survived quietly. He got it right every time.
I spread the documents across my desk and read them slowly, then again. Then a third time, because the second time hadn't made it any easier to hold.
Legitimate, fully funded, untouched from the day it was opened. Three pages of clean, expensive legal work sitting quietly in the financial system for sixteen years like something that had been patiently waiting.
Certain it would eventually be found.
Set up two months after Sebastia
