The morning began with a stillness that felt unnatural, like the air had been rearranged overnight. Alyssa sensed it the moment she stepped into the elevator — the way two junior staff members cut off their whispering and pretended to look at their phones, the way the silence stretched too thin. She didn’t say anything. She simply tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and kept her gaze forward, her heels clicking with a rhythm steadier than her heartbeat.

By the time she reached the eighteenth floor, the atmosphere had already changed. Conversations halted when she stepped into the hallway. Eyes flickered toward her only to dart away...