Evelyn POV
The boardroom grew quieter the closer the countdown moved toward zero.
Not silent.
Just tense in a way that made every small sound suddenly noticeable.
The faint tapping of fingers against keyboards.
The soft vibration of phones receiving nonstop notifications from outside departments.
The low murmur between marketing executives seated farther across the table while numbers and projections continued shifting across the massive digital screens mounted on the wall.
And in the middle of all of it—
the countdown.
Thirty minutes until the teaser officially went public.
I sat near the far end of the long conference table beside Liora, though "sat" was probably the wrong word because I had not remained still for more than ten seconds since the meeting started. My fingers kept drifting toward the paper cup of coffee in front of me before stopping halfway each time as my thoughts pulled somewhere else again.
