Thursday came too quickly.
Jessica woke before dawn, the city still half-asleep outside her window. She had gone over her questions twice, rewritten her notes three times, and practiced her introduction until her reflection started to look like a stranger.
By eight, she was on her way to One Park Central, the glass-and-steel fortress that housed Ardent Lex Group’s Manila headquarters at BGC. Her cab pulled up in front of the building’s sleek façade, where fountains framed the entrance and men in suits spoke in low, decisive tones. Everything about the place radiated power, controlled, quiet, deliberate.
She stepped through the revolving doors, her heels clicking against the marble floors. The lobby stretched upward, cold and gleaming. She signed in, her pulse thudded in her ears. She ha
