Nadia's POV
I wore the dress Elena helped me pick because it was the right dress for walking into something new. Julian made coffee and handed me mine at six forty-five without commentary, the way he always did now, and when I picked up my bag at seven-thirty, he looked at me with that specific expression he'd developed that meant he was proud and wasn't going to perform it.
"Go," he said. "I'm going." "You look like yourself." "Stop stealing Elena's lines."
He almost smiled. I left.
The first day as Chief Strategy Officer was mostly administrative. New contract, new access credentials, a team introduction meeting where six people looked at me with the particular attention of people deciding whether to trust someone new with something they cared about.
I gave them a framework for Sout
