Chapter 21 Power Shift

***Hazel***

By late afternoon, the building has decided I’m entertainment.

It starts subtly. It always does.

A pause before someone speaks to me. A glance that lingers too long. Voices lowering when I pass, then lifting again once I’m gone. The kind of attention that isn’t curiosity so much as calculation.

Blair’s firing didn’t just ripple—it detonated.

And the councilwoman’s little spectacle earl