Adalia and Matthew ended up being those odd twins born on two different days. Adalia was born just before midnight on 18 January, and Matthew was born about twenty minutes later on 19 January. Despite being born a few weeks too early, both were very healthy and didn't have to be put on ventilators but were kept in the hospital for three days regardless. There were some advantages to being self-pay instead of going by the timetable of the insurance company, and very extended hospital stays were just one of the little perks.

When the twins and their mother finally made it home after their long absence, there still hadn't been anything in the newspaper or on the television about Matthias Poulain's death, but there also had been a dearth of information on the deaths of the regional heads, so Jackson wasn't at all surprised. Despite outward appearances, the World Society was always as secretive and closed off as a communist country. If the dictator was sick, no one knew it because it would expose critical flaws.

'News will come eventually,' Lisa assured him quietly as she sat in bed nursing Adalia, Matthew beside the bed in a bassinet. It was nearly one in the morning, but as parents learn very quickly, babies are in an entirely different time zone. 'It's a really big organisation, so people will notice it's missing. Something like that can't close without word getting around.'

Jackson stared at the television for a little while before reaching up and turning it off. 'They didn't say anything specific in the news when they started closing down field offices.'

Lisa shrugged as she reached over and rubbed Matthew's head. 'Well, it doesn't really matter anymore, does it?'

He turned to look at her. 'I'm not going to be convinced that organisation is over until I read it or see it on the television.'

'For the love of God, Jackson,' Lisa said angrily. 'You put a gun to the man's temple and shot him. This is just a guess, but I'm going to have to assume that means he's dead.'

'Even if he's dead—'

'Give it up,' she said succinctly. 'I don't want to hear anything more about this.'

'It involves—'

'Stop!' she said sharply before speaking quietly again. 'Stop it, just stop it.'

He put a hand over his eyes and sighed before turning away from her once again and walking to the door, dropping his hand down to put it on his hip. 'I'll be in my office.'

Lisa watched him as he opened the door. 'Jackson, wait.'

'What, Lisa?' he asked, slumping forward a bit.

'When I was in college, I took this boring literature class,' she started, and he sighed.

'Honestly, I don't care.'

'Will you just shut your mouth and listen to me?' she asked as she carefully took their now-sleeping daughter from her chest and set her in the bassinet next to her brother. She slipped to the edge of the bed and stood, quickly walking to him as she straightened her pyjama top. 'We read this stuffy old collection of essays by a guy named Robertson Davies.'

He closed the door softly before turning to look at her, leaning against the door with his arms crossed. 'And what's so important about him?'

'It's not him who is important,' she replied, looking him straight in the eyes. 'It's something he said in the collection. It's the only thing I remember about the entire book.'

'And what was that?' he asked patronisingly.

'He said "the world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to the idealised past,"' she said, nodding her head back and forth like any person reciting something from memory. 'I always wanted to go back before I got raped, to be a happy little Daddy's girl, but if I did that, I wouldn't be here right now. Everything we do affects who we are as people. When you left, I had to adjust, but I never found myself wishing that we could go back to the way it was before. If you hadn't have disappeared, you'd still be sick, still be working long hours at Crédit Suisse instead of being here at home, everything.'

She took a step closer to him, pressing her hands on his upper arms.

'You need to move on from that, all right? If you don't just let the past go, you're going to go back through it,' she explained. 'You have a lot more to live for now, so don't keep wasting your energy on this. Things that are supposed to happen will happen because there's no one playing God anymore in your life. He's gone.'

'You've been reading too many self-help books.'

'I'm serious, Jackson,' she said sternly, squeezing his arms. 'I'm not going to just lay back and let you get wound up again. I should have caught you long before you wandered off, but I didn't, and I'm never going to make that mistake again.'

She gave him the tiniest smile before looking back at the babies who still remained solidly asleep.

'Come on, help me get them back into bed.'

---

Apparently fate's time limit on news was six days after Lisa's diatribe. Lisa, hoping to get Jackson more involved so that he would be forced to forget about the Society, had started having him go with her to take the kids to school. With a baby in a sling on each of them, they walked hand-in-hand as Jonathan and Hediyeh kept a good ten feet ahead of them. They'd become masters of small talk—after all, the walk from their house to the day care centre wasn't far, but the train ride to Chapin tended to be, so there was a huge gap where they could just chat about nothing in particular.

On warm days, after dropping the kids off, a certain freedom came over them; from the dreaded Upper East Side they took the subway to Battery Park. Once there, they spread out a blanket on the green grass overlooking the Hudson. The babies were released from their slings, Lisa lay parallel to the riverfront, Jackson sat perpendicular to her legs, and the babies were settled in the crux between the two. The twins were like cats and usually fell asleep once placed somewhere still—the little peanut-shaped humans had little interest in trying to actually move places. They were content just to be outside where it was quiet.

Picking up Adalia, Jackson scooted over and leaned back, laying his head on Lisa's stomach. The little bit of leftover pregnancy weight made her abdomen softer and more inviting. Nuzzling into her, he lowered Adalia down onto his chest before scooping Matthew to his side. Being early morning on a workday, just fifty feet from them was unbridled insanity as people tried to get to their office buildings, but the trees and the lull of the splashing Hudson helped drown out anything. As they lay looking at the sky, a ferry to Ellis Island left the pier followed soon by one heading towards the Statue of Liberty, which was a bay away from Jackson's heels.

'How do you feel today?' asked Lisa in her best therapist voice as she reached down to brush his hair back from his face. 'You're very quiet.'

He rested his hand against Adalia's back, looking at the tuft of dark reddish hair atop her head. 'I have a meeting after lunch today.'

Her hand paused in his hair. 'You didn't mention that to me.'

'I didn't know until this morning,' he admitted, turning his head to look at her chin as she continued looking up at the clear sky. 'I got a call very early when you were still helping the kids get ready for school.'

He could hear a hitch in her breath like she was going to say something, but she remained silent.

'I have to sign some papers,' continued Jackson. 'All of the business that could be done in Switzerland has been done, but there are just, you know...'

'Little details,' she murmured.

'Little details,' he repeated. 'So I have a meeting with my lawyer in Switzerland and the executor of Poulain's estate. They're flying in later today.'

'Please take someone with you,' she said, pushing herself up enough that his head slid down into her lap. 'Ask Lyna, or—'

'The meeting is at our house,' he interrupted, looking up at her as she stared down at him. 'Don't worry, they'll be gone before Augustine gets home with the kids.'

'What are they having you sign?' she asked suspiciously, narrowing her eyes.

He smiled a bit as he closed his eyes. 'Nothing can be closed without my permission.'

'Right,' she said, giving him a little laugh. 'You're that special.'

'I'm serious,' he said as he sat up, Adalia held tightly to his chest. He turned around to look at her again. 'Legally they can't do anything until my signature on the dissolution papers.'

She stared again. 'Is that some sort of unspoken rule between you Mafioso types?'

'Phoebe is his heir, but I'm the heir apparent of the World Society,' he explained as Lisa picked up Matthew, cradling his head as she held him against her chest.

'You act like it's a monarchy,' she replied to him, scooting forward to sit right next to him on the blanket.

He shrugged and silence fell over them. After a couple of minutes, Lisa leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder.

---

That afternoon, Lisa stood at the elevator when the doors open, Adalia held in her arms. The two people in the lift had been chatting, but as soon as they saw Lisa, both immediately stopped. The woman looked at the lovely little barf rag on Lisa's shoulder with distaste, and the Turkish man seemed to just generally ignore her.

'I'm sorry, Jackson had to go change clothes unexpectedly,' Lisa said hurriedly. 'Would you like to sit down in the living room, or in Jackson's office?'

The two of them looked at each other, then the executor spoke. 'We would prefer the office.'

'Of course, of course,' said Lisa, adjusting Adalia so that she could gesture down the hall. 'It's right this way.'

They followed her down the hallway, neither of them offering to open the door for her when they got to the office. Lisa leaned against the door as they walked past, both looking around at the dark office. With the baby still held to her, Lisa went to the opposite wall and opened the curtains, letting in the sun to light the room.

'Please, make yourselves comfortable,' she said as she edged open the curtains. 'He should be—'

'Sorry to be running late,' Jackson said as he walked sleekly through the door completely calmly.

'That's all right,' said the older female lawyer. 'We arrived a bit early.'

'Lisa, this is my lawyer, Marion Arnaud,' Jackson said. 'And this must be Phoebe's lawyer.'

'We would prefer your wife leave the room,' said the executor almost clinically, not bothering to even look towards Lisa.

Keeping his face emotionless, he looked at Lisa and gave her a nod. 'Take the twins up to our room. If Matthew wakes up, I don't want to be able to hear him down here.'

'It's a nice day,' Lisa said quietly as she walked over to the door of the office. 'We'll be up on the roof patio when you're done.'

When the door closed behind her, Jackson gestured to the seating area in the centre of the room. The two barristers sat down, each beginning to spread papers from their briefcases across the coffee table. There was a massive document, Poulain's last will and testament, that the executor kept in his lap. Equally large were the dissolution papers for the World Society that Marion set down in front of him.

'We are of course more concerned with the dissolution than in the reading of the will,' Marion said in French as she pushed the document closer to him. He picked it up. 'You may either read it yourself or I can give you a précis.'

'I'll scan it,' he replied absentmindedly as he began flipping through the pages. For a moment, he looked up. 'Is Mlle Couturier joining us today?'

Marion gave him a diplomatic smile. 'Mr Karaca is her representative.'

A long pause. 'You know, it's probably a better idea to just give me the précis. Let's keep this meeting as short as possible.'