She told Darian at seven that evening.
Not immediately after the board meeting she needed the hours between three fifteen and seven for herself. To walk back to her office and sit at her desk and look at the West Loop and understand what had just happened without anyone else's response shaping how she felt about it first.
She had learned this about herself over the years. That her first reaction to significant things belonged to her alone. That giving it away too quickly to Imara, to Rowan, to anyone meant she sometimes arrived at other people's feelings about her life before she had fully formed her own.
So she sat with it.
Senior Partner. Above band. Her team. Her terms. Direct board reporting.
She had walked into that room as herself and walked out with everything she had asked fo
