ANNA'S POV
Mateo's text came at eight-fifteen. The meeting is today. Luca arrived this morning.
I read it twice. Locked the phone. The coffee had gone cold in my hand.
Through the kitchen window, Elias crouched by the garden wall, running his red truck through a patch of dirt he'd decided was a construction site. Nina sat a few feet away with a book, one eye on him.
I watched them a moment. Then I went to get ready.
Ralph was already in Conference Room Three when I got there. He looked up as I pushed the door open.
"There you are."
"You scheduled this meeting."
"And yet I was beginning to feel abandoned."
I sat and pulled the folder toward me. "You survived."
"Barely."
We worked through the agenda — trade routes, a supplier proposal from Silver Ridge, two expansion sites Ralph's
