“Time you know how the whole bloody machine works,” he says, not unkindly. “You’ll be the one giving orders to Asdar soon enough. He’s the arm. You’re the head. No sense having a fist without a brain behind it.”

The Last Stroll

Not everything that matters fits on paper. Some inheritances are a walk in the cold; a voice saying that you will need to understand enough that no one can sell you smoke. I listened. I did not know yet how soon I would need it.

The EVE

By the fire that night, the house felt smaller in the good way — just the people who actually belonged there, whiskey catching the lamplight, old stories receiving the wince-and-grin treatment they had earned. Someone brought up the night he drank against doctor’s orders and rearranged every terrace chair on the property. He took the retelling like a man amused by a stranger he used to be.

I walked him to his door, as I always did. Neither of us knew it was the last time that particular ritual would need an answer.

Continue the journey. Start the series here → The European Records

© 2026 I.Ph. de Lange. All rights reserved. Published by CYcrds OÜ.

Author’s Note: Roger

I’ve told the real Roger for years that he’d go with his boots on, more warning than joke between us. In the book, that’s exactly how it happens.

In life, thankfully, those boots are still walking.

I.Ph.