“The board meeting starts in thirty minutes,” I said evenly while holding his gaze. “I have requested time to speak.”
For a brief moment Victor looked completely uncertain about how to react before abruptly turning and leaving the room with quick rigid steps.
I stood still and watched the coffee spreading across the floor while a quiet realization settled inside my chest that sometimes the moment everything changes happens quietly rather than loudly.
My name is Morgan Hayes and most people never remember seeing me in a crowded room because I have always looked deliberately ordinary with brown hair tied into a practical ponytail and a face people recognize vaguely but cannot place, which suits the profession I chose.
I work in corporate compliance and people who never meet someone in compliance usually assume the job involves nothing more than paperwork, yet the reality is that we read policies the way detectives read evidence and we search for patterns in behavior that others overlook.