The pressure did not ease; it tightened. By the fourth day after the internal meeting, Lynda no longer needed reports to know what was happening. She could feel it in the rhythm of communication. In the delays between responses. In the way updates arrived carefully measured and incomplete.

This was no longer resistance from outside alone. It was strain spreading inward. She sat at her dining table, staring at three open files on her laptop.

Chicago.

Boston.

New York.

Each one told a different ...