The rest of the executive team — Rachel, Sandy, Kara and Amelia evacuated the Meeting Room, leaving Darren and the unsmiling Lilian Greaves sitting on opposite chairs.
Darren had a penetrative look on his face, a challenging gaze. But Lilian didn't react outwardly. Her posture remained ramrod straight, hands clasped loosely before her, a statue carved from bureaucratic resolve.
Inside, however, a familiar cold focus settled, the kind honed over years of chasing ghosts in spreadsheets and transaction logs.
Lilian Greaves hadn't stumbled into the Department of Financial Integrity by accident. Her path was forged in the white-hot crucible of 2008.
Ever since she was little, she had dedicated herself to being the pure description of success.
At first, she was a bright-eyed economics major, interning at a mid-tier investment bank in Manhattarn. But she hated how she was being looked down on.
