The EchoTech board meeting was on a Thursday in late January.
Mia drove herself. She had learned to do that — not because Nathan couldn't drive her, not because Patricia wasn't available, but because arriving in her own car meant she arrived on her own terms. She had been practicing that all semester: arriving on her own terms, leaving when she was ready, occupying space at the right size.
She parked on the street. She checked her lipstick in the rearview mirror. She got out and walked into the building.
The boardroom was on the fourth floor — the same floor as the offices, the same glass wall she had paused at in December and looked through at the people building something real. She had been in this room four times now since the ruling. Each time it had felt slightly more like a room s
