Victor Alderman chose a diner on the edge of the city, the kind of place with vinyl booths and a menu that hadn't changed in twenty years, precisely because nobody who mattered would ever think to look for a Knight family secret there.
He was older than Adrian remembered, hair fully gray now, hands that trembled slightly around his coffee cup in a way that had nothing to do with age and everything to do with nerves. He glanced at the door every few seconds, the habit of a man who'd spent fifteen years assuming someone might eventually come looking for him.
"You brought her," Victor said, nodding at Aria as they slid into the booth across from him. "Good. She should hear this too."
"Hear what, exactly?" Adrian asked. "You said you found something in my father's early paperwork. Something
