“Keep watching the docket,” I said. “If anything comes in from Gerald’s office, I want it before it sits unread anywhere else. No assumptions, no summaries, no waiting until morning because someone thinks it can hold. This case doesn’t get treated like background noise.”
“Understood,” Ryan said.
I left him there and went back to my office. The door closed behind me, and the quiet returned at once. It wasn’t the quiet of my house, and I was aware of that immediately. This quiet had paper, screens, deadlines, and consequences in it.
It suited me better right now.
I sat down and pulled up the Calloway file again. Not because I needed to review it, but because I wanted to see the full structure now that it had shifted. Delays challenged, timeline tightened, pressure applied where it needed
