DEAN

After I returned to Agate Country, I threw myself into work, wrapping up backlogs and pushing forward with the plan to open a new branch in Emerald City.

The backlash from the board didn’t surprise me.

It never does. By now, it was almost routine.

I didn’t waste time or energy arguing with them. Instead, I ordered a feasibility evaluation to be done.

And today, it will be presented.

The air in the boardroom was stifling, heavy with the silence that followed hours of polite bickering disguised as “discussion.”

Finally, one of the older directors—cut from the same cloth as Raven’s Vaughn—rose to his feet.

“Mr. CEO, with all...