I heard about it from Marcus, of all people. He and Ella were hosting a dinner party—something they did regularly now that they'd returned from their extended honeymoon—and Marcus had mentioned it casually while pouring wine: "Did you know Anderson Research Partners officially launched? My friend works there. He says Daniel Anderson is running it. Isn't that the guy from your past?"
I had nodded, accepted the information without fanfare, and moved on to helping Ella with dessert. But the news had landed somewhere in my chest, and I spent the rest of the evening aware of it in the way you're aware of a stone in your shoe—not painful, but present. A reminder that something existed, that something had shifted, that something was happening in the world around me.
