The Varek Industries annual gala was held at the Grand Meridian in the third week of November and it was the kind of event that cost enough to make a statement and was attended by people who understood exactly what statement was being made.
Ava had been managing the logistics for three weeks. Guest list, seating architecture, catering coordination across four separate dietary requirement categories, the specific diplomatic algebra of table assignments where three separate clients had competing histories that required careful spatial management. She had done it with the efficiency that had become her professional signature and she had done it while maintaining the contained, professional bearing that had characterized her work for the past two weeks.
She had not been thinking about the dr
