The pressure has not let up. If anything, it just got sharper. By the second week, the reality of it all had settled in, heavy and unyielding. Thirty days was not some distant, vague deadline anymore; it was a clock, ticking down. Every day that slipped by shrank Lynda’s options, squeezed the negotiation space, and raised the risks for everyone counting on that building. But something had shifted in her method. She was not just reacting anymore; she was planning.

The conference room looked ...