If there was one thing life loved doing, it was refusing to pause just because everything was falling apart in the background.
Lucien's mess with Vanguard Ark Investments, Benjamin Otavio, and the Prometheus Acquisition Index was still very much alive—quiet, poisonous, and too big to ignore. But despite that storm gathering at Moreau Dynamics, the calendar didn't care. Deadlines didn't care. Corporate schedules definitely didn't care.
And the Final Presentation for the Meridian Development Initiative?
That was tomorrow.
As in—less than twenty-four hours away.
Under normal circumstances, I'd be buzzing. This presentation was everything Gray & Milton had been building toward for months. Winning meant recognition. Winning meant influence. Winning meant a promotion with my name practically engraved on it. And sure—winning meant being the Lead Financial Analyst on the most successful developmental initiative of the entire fiscal year.
Maybe even the decade.
