Chapter 28
The glass doors of Sterling Enterprises usually parted like the Red Sea for Evan, the security detail offering crisp nods and the lobby staff wearing practiced masks of deference. But this morning, the air in the atrium was thick, stagnant with a tension he couldn't quite name.
As he crossed the marble floor, the usual hum of morning productivity died a sudden, jagged death. It wasn't the respectful silence he was used to; it was a heavy, judgmental quiet. Groups of employees, both old and new, huddled near the espresso bar, went still, their eyes tracking him with a mixture of morbid curiosity and blatant disgust. One intern, barely twenty-one, didn't even bother to look away when Evan caught her eye; she tightened her grip on her tablet and whispered something to her colleag
