Author POV

The director closed the door behind him with more force than the room needed. The office seemed smaller in that instant—paper stacks leaning like witnesses, the city’s dull hum pressing against the windows. He looked at Nathan with a face that had learned to hold a hundred small betrayals without flinching. Now he let the anger show.

“What the hell were you doing out there?” he demanded, voice low and dangerous. He dropped a sheaf of papers on the desk so hard the corner ...