Nadia's POV
The board presentation was on a Wednesday.
I wore the dress Elena helped me pick. I took the subway because I didn't want to arrive in a car that felt like borrowed confidence. I got there eight minutes early and used four of them standing outside the building, reminding myself that I'd already done the work and the presentation was just showing it to people.
Priya met me in the lobby.
"You look good," she said.
"I know."
She smiled. "There she is."
The board presentation took forty minutes. I'd prepared for sixty and cut twenty minutes of material because the good version was tighter than the complete version. Marcus had taught me that. Priya had enforced it.
Four board members, Marcus and Priya. The room was the kind of quiet that meant people were actually listening
