The funeral drew exactly the kind of press circus Sterling had feared, cameras clustered thick along the cemetery's edges, reporters murmuring theories about Julian Vane's final months into microphones just out of earshot, and Ivy stood beside Sterling through all of it, steady and present, refusing to let the spectacle steal what small, private grief the day still deserved. Delilah arrived alone, dressed simply, standing slightly apart from the small cluster of board members and old associates who'd come more out of professional obligation than genuine mourning.

"I didn't know if I should come," she admitted quietly, finding Sterling and Ivy near the edge of the gathering. "We hadn't spoken...