Adela’s older brother, Liam Walton, helped his grandfather into the car outside the airport, feeling as though the entire day had sapped his energy. Yet he wasn’t the only one weighed down by conflicting emotions. Far across town, in a quiet, dimly lit bar, Liam’s close associate and friend—though “friend” might be too strong a term—Layson Norman was sitting with a glass of whiskey. The low hum of jazz music filled the background, and the faint chatter of other patrons hung in the air.
But even that subdued setting paled in comparison to the somber mood of another man who was already deep into his own drink: Liam Walton himself had chosen to meet someone in a bar, but not Layson. Instead, he had shown up in response to a spontaneous call from Dexter Norman… or so Layson had assumed at fir
