Chapter 86 - Chapter 86 – Silent Support

The tension inside Blackridge's executive conference room became suffocating less than ten minutes into the morning briefing. Screens along the glass walls flashed rotating financial projections while board members exchanged clipped remarks over overlapping reports already stained by weeks of instability. Caro barely had time to settle into her seat near the secondary operations table before another legal advisor slid a revised acquisition summary toward Peter with visible urgency. He accepted it without looking up, jaw tight beneath the cold overhead lighting while questions continued firing at him from opposite ends of the table. The pressure in the room felt relentless today, sharpened further by the silence that had existed between them since the phone call that never became a confession.