Ava Bennett had not yet left the boardroom.
She was still up there on the fourteenth floor, sitting across from Adrian, portfolio open, presenting her case with the calm of someone who had rehearsed every possible version of this moment. The room had been cleared. It was just the two of them. Victoria knew this because she had watched it happen, had watched the door open and the staff file out one by one until the corridor camera showed nothing moving anymore.
She had been on the ninth floor the entire time. Watching.
The ninth floor office was quiet. It was always quiet. Victoria had arranged it that way, soft carpet, no ticking clock, the kind of deliberate silence that made other people uncomfortable and that made Victoria feel precisely at home. She had learned early that discomfort
