I had sat at this table in June and let Aaron talk about synergies while my father said nothing, and I took the silence for approval.

“You knew,” I said.

“I suspected.” He set the glass down without a coaster.

“There is a difference, and I should have made it my business to close it.”

At one, Daniel came around the back of the house the way the gardener does, through the side gate, and let himself into the kitchen with a manila envelope under his arm.

He had not shaved.