The offices were on the fourth floor of a building that had no signage at street level.This was deliberate, and Leila had noticed it the way she noticed deliberate things — with a specific, quiet approval. A family law practice that served clients who valued discretion had understood, at some point in its history, that the first act of discretion was not announcing yourself. The building was on a street of similar buildings, professional and unremarkable, the kind of street that existed in every city to house the serious work that didn't require a facade.She had arrived four minutes early.She was always four minutes early — not five, which read as anxious, not two, which read as careless. Four was the interval of someone who managed their time well and respected other people's. She had developed this calculation in her early twenties and had never revised it because it had never been wrong.Darius was downstairs.She had come up alone.Miriam Osei's assistant — young, precise, the
Last Updated : 2026-02-22 Read more