Age arrived gradually, the way it does for most fortunate people, though Lucien found himself, in his early sixties, occasionally startled by the accumulated evidence of it — gray fully claiming what had once been dark hair, the particular stiffness in his joints on cold mornings, the way certain memories from decades earlier now felt both perfectly preserved and strangely distant, viewed through the accumulated years like objects seen through old, wavering glass.

He’d retired from Ashford Global two years earlier, handing the company’s daily operations to a capable successor while retaining an advisory role that allowed him to focus most of his considerable energy on the foundation instead —...