I did not meet Noah Lancaster that week. I only heard about him afterward, in pieces, the way you piece together a story from the people who were actually in the room.
What I knew was this: Daniel had been at a charity event Thursday evening, accompanying Adrian to something that could not be cancelled without drawing attention. A foundation dinner. The kind of event where the tablecloths cost more than most people’s rent and everyone smiles with their mouths and watches with their eyes. Adrian had brought Noah because Victoria was still doing her careful performance of normal, and a family appearance was part of that performance.
Daniel told me the rest the following morning, over coffee in the Bennett Capital lobby, in the quiet way he told me things when he thought I needed to know th
