Chapter 14

• The room smelled faintly of citrus and wood polish, but to me it might as well have been smoke and steel. I sat at the long table, fingers curled around a closed folder marked PRIVATE, my name printed discreetly in the top corner. There were no cameras. No reporters. No flashes. This was not a spectacle. It was something quieter. Far more dangerous. It was the board’s internal audit session. And I was no longer hiding behind signatures or trust documents. I was here. Fully.
• Across from me sat six people. Five of them had been present when Roman pitched his vision months ago. The same vision that painted me as unstable. Unfit. Only one looked at me now without hesitation. Valerie Carson. Her eyes held something close to guarded trust. The rest were unreadable. Or unwilling to be read.
• Julian stood behind me, quiet and composed. I had asked him not to speak unless questioned directly. I wanted the answers to come from me.