Alfredo’s Pov

It turned slowly into a thing of routine. Meeting after meeting that gave me respite to a timeout. Conan had come back with less and less information that only hinted at one thing: Melissa was dead.

“Do I need to get your head out of the cloud?”

I turned to see Mother standing by my side with a look on her face that told me she was worried about me.

“I’m fine,” I said as I managed a nervous chuckle to pull her away from my thoughts.

“What were you thinking of? It’s not like you have responsibility designated to you at the moment.” She said as she...