CHAPTER 37: FAULT LINES
The illusion of stability rarely announced when it began to fracture. It slipped in quietly, through numbers that almost aligned, through reports that looked complete but felt unfinished, through instincts Lena had learned not to ignore. Two weeks after Elias’s father returned home and Calder–Moreau resumed its steady forward momentum, Lena sat in her office long after the building had emptied, reviewing the quarterly integration reports from their newest international partner. On the surface, everything was functioning exactly as planned. Revenue projections matched expectations. Employee transition metrics remained stable. Compliance checks passed cleanly. And yet something about the data refused to settle. It wasn’t wrong, it was too perfect. Lena leaned back i
