The wall tried to smile while the microphones were red.
Color thinned across the top edge of the panel. A rounded hand began to form. A logo strained to be born.
Sofia's thumb pressed the red tile. Nothing changed.
Ava did not move. "Contact slide. Now."
The caption held for one beat, then the panel ignored it and brightened. The gradient spilled down like a curtain that had decided not to listen.
Cameras tightened. A reporter whispered yes as if a game had turned.
Noah's eyes stayed on Ava's left shoulder. "Instruction," he said, too low for the mics.
"Say it," she said.
He faced the room. "That screen does not speak for Nearlight. We are live. We kill any scheduled post that contradicts the freeze."
Sofia lifted her second hand. "Manual cut," she said.
The panel blinked to black. Two beats of clean dark. Then the plain contact slide came up with a number that looked like a door.
No one clapped. Professionals never do. The room registered the weight all the same.
Ava gave a nod that cost nothing and bought time. "Questions. Systems and redress only."
The anchor raised his chin. "Who pushed that promo."
"We will post the audit trail," Ava said. "Legacy scheduler, separate permissions. Killed at eight seventeen. We will show the path and the fix."
A woman from a city daily spoke without waiting to be pointed at. "A boutique on Orchard posted an eviction notice this morning. The photo shows your platform in the reason line. The owner's last name is Chen. Any relation."
The room went very quiet. Even the street seemed to lean on the glass.
Ava kept her hands still. "Yes," she said. "She is my mother."
Several devices chimed at once. The anchor did not look away this time.
"Then you are conflicted," he said.
"Yes," Ava said. "I disclosed to the room. I disclose to you now."
A murmur ran through the chairs like a low current. It did not feel like triumph. It felt like gravity.
Marcus's smile tried to be helpful. "This is precisely why governance must control messaging," he said. "We cannot have personal entanglements guiding the street."
Noah did not look at Marcus. He looked at the red near Ava's fingers. "We control the message with facts," he said. "Conflict is disclosed. Process holds."
The city daily pushed again. "Will you still handle the Orchard case."
Ava looked into the cameras so the words could not duck responsibility. "I recuse from decisions on Fable and Thread."
The sentence sat in the air and made a clean shape. The microphones accepted it.
"Who takes it," the daily said.
"An external auditor," Ava said. "Name will be posted today. Comms routes messages. I do not touch outcomes."
"Then tell us the facts so far," the anchor said. "Not your opinion. Facts."
"Eviction notice posted," she said. "Reason cites our payment risk flag. We have rescinded the flag in writing. We will read and sign the rescission on the sidewalk. Property office will acknowledge on record."
"Why a sidewalk," the anchor said.
"Because that is where the harm landed," she said.
A hand with chipped polish lifted again. "Are you apologizing to your mother."
"I am apologizing to every person our system harmed," Noah said. "The relationship does not change the apology."
The answer held. It did not beg for agreement.
Sofia touched her ear. "Advocate line surges," she said softly. "Five calls in. One from Orchard. Consent to be on record if needed."
The anchor smelled a seam. "Ms. Chen, do you think you can be objective about your own family."
"Objectivity is not the job," Ava said. "Procedure is. I disclosed the conflict, recused, and kept the lane open."
"Is the lane open to Orchard now," the city daily said. "Will you go there with cameras."
"Yes," Ava said. "After this room reads the contact slide again."
Marcus lifted a hand as if the air needed a traffic cop. "The board has to authorize field actions," he said. "We cannot make policy on mic."
"This is not policy," Ava said. "This is repair."
Noah kept his eyes on her shoulder. He was very still, the kind of stillness that makes rules easy to hear.
A blogger near the back spoke without being called. "Is the auditor really external. Name one."
Sofia did not look up from the tablet. "Gray and Moor," she said. "Mandate confirmed. Contact posted."
"Did they sign before you said that," the anchor said.
"Yes," she said. "Timestamp is in the pin."
The trade reporter who had thanked them raised her hand. "What about the cases not related to family," she said. "Riverlight and Silver Harbor."
"Riverlight checkout is stable," Ava said. "Silver Harbor has an engineer slot at fourteen hundred. We will publish both outcomes."
The anchor tried the seam one more time. "Ms. Chen, you learned about the Orchard notice on your phone a few minutes ago. Why did you not leave the podium then."
Ava looked at the red cap in her hand and put it down again. Do not flinch.
"Because this room needed rules first," she said. "My family can wait for the procedure that protects every family."
Something in the room softened without becoming friendly.
Sofia's tablet buzzed hard enough to jump. She glanced, then looked up. "Incoming from Orchard," she said. "Consent to go on record."
The city daily lifted her phone. "Is it the owner."
Sofia nodded. "Name on the line is Mei Chen."
Ava did not reach for the tablet. She did not reach for Noah. She reached for the rule.
"Ask her if she wants to be heard by the room," Ava said.
Sofia listened, then lifted her eyes.
"She says," Sofia said, "put me on speaker."
The phones rose like a tide. The contact slide glowed on the wall. The street outside changed its chant to something without words.
The call light turned green.