tie in the o

yet there was an unease in the pit of my stomac

insisted on that. Every detail had to be flaw

watched them lower him into the g

fiery plane crash years ago, leaving me with a

e echo of what once was, trying to

were a battlefield, the demands of the board meeting cl

any was on the brink of a new era, and so was I, though

udden ring of my phone jolted me from my thoughts,

een, it was Mrs. Haw

as I could remember, a constant presence

n, her voice tinged wi

e a few minutes ago. He also stopp

he words coming out more

im to call m

one softening, as if she could sen

ted he needed to speak

ped me, lon

office, then. I don't hav

moving on, brushing off the encounte

tine signatures, the kind of formalities that

eventually, j

all, the room greeted me with an unnatural still

t was In a slow, hesitant, draggy manner as if

wed it down, keeping my face as an unreadable

genda, my voice stead

on course with the expansion plans," I began,

re solidified and that the integration proc

t the room remained eerily silent, the only sound tha

expressions staring back at m

my tone betraying the sli

e air, stretching seconds

ions, a man whose face was lined with y

ents slow, deliberate. His eyes swept the room, and in that brief

egan, his voice lo

have to suspend the

e a slap, sharp and

fixed on the table, his hands c

cision, Mr. Adrian. It'

hung between us,

give orders in this company other

s throat, the sound loud in the tense stillness. When he spoke again, his voice was bar

me as I stood up, my chair scra

belief coloring my words. "He just pa

s met my gaze, his eye

r us to accept your leadership of the board is that you f

d tasted foreign, stran

ads, each one a silent admission of ignorance. The o

t he made us signed. We all signed it, per

hair, the tension coil

on-disc

lling out identical slips of paper. My breath caught in my th

of the pen a familiar echo from the past, and his signature, bold an

nize the hand

was gentle, but the question sl

confusion and disbelief. "This.

he old man continued, his voi

person who can cl

than I intended, a mix of de

rang again, the sound jarring i

pping a beat at the name that flashed