The arena felt colder the next morning.
Not because of the ice.
Because of the silence.
Sheila arrived earlier than usual, her footsteps echoing faintly through the empty corridors as she walked toward the analyst booth. The building wasn’t fully awake yet—only a few staff members moved quietly between offices, clutching coffee cups and tablets, preparing for another demanding day.
But Sheila wasn’t thinking about performance metrics or training data.
She was thinking about the headline draft still glowing in her memory.
She hadn’t slept much. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw Carter’s message replaying itself, each word tightening like a noose around her professional reputation. She had worked too hard to build her career to let it be twisted into gossip.
She set her bag down
