POV: Emilia Conti
They scheduled the meeting for Friday.
That alone told me everything.
Friday meetings were designed to dissipate impact—decisions buried under weekends, outrage softened by distance. If you wanted something forgotten, you announced it on a Friday afternoon and let time do the rest.
They hadn't forgotten who they were dealing with.
The agenda arrived twelve minutes later.
Leadership Alignment & Ethics Review – Special Session
No names attached. No outcomes promised. Just presence required.
Mine included.
The room was larger this time. Not glass-walled. Wood-paneled. Old power. The kind of space that had watched generations of decisions pass through without leaving fingerprints.
I took my seat without greeting anyone.
Across from me, faces I'd only ever seen on letterheads avoided my eyes. Not out of fear—out of calculation. They were already measuring what it would cost to speak honestly.
The chair cleared his throat.
