The news of the liquidation wasn't a thunderclap; it was the eerie silence that follows one. The storm had already passed over my head. Now, I was simply watching the floodwaters recede from a great distance, revealing the wreckage that had been submerged all along.
My new office at Apex was a study in minimalist tranquility. A single pane of floor-to-ceiling glass overlooked the sprawling, sun-drenched campus. It was a space designed for clear thinking, a stark contrast to the cramped, chaotic server rooms where I had spent the best years of my life, patching the digital wounds of Elias's ambition.
For a few days, the tech world was a vortex of commentary. Analysts wrote post-mortems. Business journals crafted cautionary tales about the dangers of prioritizing narrative over substance.
