When she got there she found the office to be almost crowded. Jason had been given pride of place, directly across the desk from the lawyer. Carmela sat beside him. She had been a constant presence all during these awful days, at the wake, at the funeral, at the cemetery afterward. She and Madeline had hardly exchanged a word, as if Carmela had not wanted to explain the big change to her old friend. It seemed clear that Carmela hoped that the long separation from Jason was over. He looked fresh and healthy and neatly dressed; you could glimpse the young man he had been behind his present puffy exterior. Now his weight seemed almost to lend him gravitas. Well, after all, this was his moment. Jason would finally come into his own. Nathaniel Green had arrived just before Madeline, with Natalie Armstrong, and Amos’s secretary was taking them to their chairs when she came in. Madeline had been wondering what she was doing here, but the same question could be asked about Natalie. Behind his desk, Amos Cadbury looked benignly at the gathering.
