Rain lashed the glass walls of the Langston Tower conference room, blurring the skyline below. The air inside was stale with tension, expensive cologne, and the sourness of desperation.
Across from Ava, a board director from one of her subsidiary holdings was sweating through his collar. She had forgotten his name. He was supposed to be delivering quarterly projections.
Instead, he was unraveling.
“Montgomery Group is bleeding,” he said, fingers drumming nervously on the table. “They’ve lost two hedge partners in under six weeks, and Evermark’s holding off on renewals.”
Ava didn’t blink. She already knew.
She always knew before they did.
What interested her wasn’t the collapse. It was the pattern beneath it.
“And?” she prompted.
The director hesitated.
“We believe it’s connected t
