The hall filled gradually, the low hum of voices weaving through the space like something alive.
Chairs shifted against the polished floor. Papers rustled. A few quiet greetings passed between colleagues who had worked side by side long enough to recognize when something felt different.
Ava stood just behind the side entrance, her fingers resting lightly against the cool surface of the wall.
Through the narrow opening, she could see them. All of them.
Departments that rarely overlapped now gathered in one place. Faces she knew. Some she didn’t. People who had built something under the same roof, each carrying their own version of what this company meant.
Her gaze lingered. Then, they dropped briefly.
A breath moved through her chest, slow, deliberate, as she straightened.
“Are you r
