DANTE

"She had no objections?"

"None," Francesca replies on the other end of the call, her voice crisp and to the point, just as she always is. "She agreed to everything, listened carefully and seemed... compliant."

I stare out at the glass skyline from the 37th floor of the conference building in Chicago, loosening the cuff of my shirt. The meeting had gone smoothly. The acquisition is a win, my team is celebrating downstairs, but my mind is elsewhere.

...