(Lena’s POV)

The city had not slept, and neither had I. From my apartment window, the skyline blinked with distant lights that looked more like warnings than stars. Every thought replayed the boardroom, the shifting faces, the clipped voices, the way Victoria’s smile had lingered just long enough to brand itself behind my eyes.

I sat at the kitchen table with a mug of untouched tea, watching the steam dissolve. My phone buzzed with new notifications every few minutes: headlines about the ...