Alexander's POV:

The Silver Lake main hall is lit the way it's lit when something is about to be decided — every lamp on, no shadows anywhere, the kind of illumination that leaves no room for ambiguity. My mother stands in the center of it, and behind her stand four elders in full ceremonial dress.

I stop in the doorway.

'They arranged this fast,' Antony says.

'They had time to arrange it. We were three days at that ...