It is a strange and terrible education, to lie still and play dead and watch the people around you believe you cannot hear them.

Over five days, I received it in full.

Chapter 3 — The Vultures

They circled my bed like birds that had been waiting a long time for the meal.

My closest adviser wept convincingly by the window, and then, in a lowered voice, took a phone call about consolidating authority.

My cousin Anthony arrived to speak, warmly and at length, about the need to modernize the family firm now that its founder was incapacitated.

A politician whose entire career I had built came to promise his support for a smooth transition of power.