Meadow's POV
Cities rarely change all at once.
They shift along fault lines.
Invisible cracks that form beneath systems long before the surface ever breaks.
Two days after the dinner, the first crack appeared.
It wasn't dramatic.
No explosions.
No scandals.
Just a quiet piece of news buried in a financial column most people would never read.
A logistics firm in Chicago, one of the companies Victor Hale had quietly acquired, announced a sudden leadership restructuring.
Three executives resigned within the same hour.
No explanation.
Just a carefully worded press statement about "strategic realignment."
I was already sitting in the monitoring room when the alert crossed one of our industry feeds.
The moment I saw the company name, something inside me tightened.
"Alaric," I said.
He looked up from the tablet in his hands.
"What is it?"
I turned the screen toward him.
He read the article silently.
Then once more.
"Interesting," he murmured.
