The morning air outside the conference center had the clean sharpness of a city that had been washed by rain. Reports filtered across terminals and phones: stock movements, hastily written opinion pieces, and the steady hum of analysts recalculating their models. For days the market had watched the saga — a public drama of money, reputation and very human fallibility — and now, on the day the shareholders convened, the theatre of consequence narrowed into one place: the hall where Hart Holdings' annual meeting would determine not just the company's immediate future, but in many ways the narrative of power Marrin had spent a year reconstructing.
She arrived early, the polished leather of her shoes whispering against the marble. The boardroom wing smelled of citrus polish and new paper. Sta
