She was at the table when the morning session opened.
I had not known if she would be. The corridor conversation had cracked something fundamental in her architecture and fundamental cracks could go two ways — toward rebuilding or toward retreat. She could have left in the night. Withdrawn from the summit, filed the petition with whatever signatures she had, forced us into a longer fight on different ground.
She was at the table.
That was the first answer.
The second answer was her posture — not the precision of yesterday, not the controlled certainty of someone who has their presentation ready. Something different. The posture of a person who has been awake most of the night and is carrying the weight of that wakefulness into a room that is about to watch them change direction.
Cole
