**DEREK POV**
I don’t hear about it right away.
That’s how these things usually work. Decisions get made in rooms that feel sealed off even to the people they affect most, framed as logistics, filtered through layers of authority until they sound inevitable instead of chosen. Process replaces intent. Structure replaces accountability. By the time the outcome reaches the edges of the pack, it already carries the weight of finality, like it was always going to happen this way.
I tell myself distance makes it cleaner.
That separation prevents further damage.
I let myself believe that because the alternative requires sitting with something raw and unfinished, and I don’t trust myself there yet.
I frame my actions as damage control.
The phrase settles easily into place. I’ve used it befo
