To hear it come out of Hollis Crane’s gentle old mouth was uncanny, as though my father had reached up through the attorney to speak once more in the room he had ruled from, and I found myself standing straighter, the old reflex of a boy summoned before a father who did not deal in second chances.

“Bennett.

Juliet.

If you are hearing these words read together, then Vivienne’s long journey is ending, and the secret I kept out of cowardice has finally come into the light where it always belonged.”

I did not move.

Beside the window, Juliet had gone very still.

“Bennett,” Hollis read, “I raised you to be a titan.

I taught you to see the world through the cold lens of power, and territory, and control.