Monday morning felt different before I even reached the building.

Keo had woken up early, asthma quiet for once, and asked if I was going to “the tall office” again. I told him yes. Mrs. Gable had stayed the rest of the night without complaint; when I got home just after sunrise she was already making Keo toast and pretending she hadn’t seen the extra money Diana had sent. I slept four hours on the couch with my shoes still on. It was the most I’d slept in weeks.

Now I stood in the elevator in a clean shirt that still had a loose thread at the cuff, holding a paper cup of coffee I hadn’t had time to finish. The doors opened on the forty-second floor. People were already moving. Phones rang. Someone laughed near the break room. No one looked at me like I didn’t belong, but I still felt the difference.

Diana’s ᴀssistant met me at the elevators.

“Mr. Miller? She’s expecting you. Conference room B.”

I followed her down the hall. Through the glᴀss I could see Diana already inside, laptop open, hair pulled back, the same sharp focus she wore in every meeting I’d ever watched from the outside. Mia wasn’t with her. A small monitor sat on the table instead, showing a nursery camera feed. The baby was asleep in a crib somewhere else in the building.

Diana looked up when I walked in. “Close the door.”

I did. She gestured to the chair across from her.

“HR already processed the insurance,” she said. “Keo’s prescription was picked up this morning. The pharmacy has your new card on file. You won’t pay out of pocket again.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet.” She turned the laptop so I could see the screen. Spreadsheets. Shipping routes. The Tokyo account. “You’re not just fixing numbers anymore. I need someone who can look at a delay and tell me what’s actually wrong before it costs us another container. You’ve been doing that for two years in the background. Now you’ll do it where I can see it.”

I studied the screen. The columns were familiar. The stakes were not.

“What if I get it wrong?”

“Then you’ll tell me before it becomes expensive.” She leaned back. “I’m not asking you to be perfect. I’m asking you to stop working like someone who’s afraid of being seen.”

The monitor on the table flickered. Mia shifted in her sleep, one small fist rising and falling. Diana’s eyes went to it for half a second, then back to me.

“The nanny situation is handled for now,” she said. “There’s a daycare two floors down that takes infants. Mia will be there during the day. If she needs me, I’ll go. If she needs someone who knows how to get an overtired baby to sleep…” She paused. “I’ll call you. Not because you’re on the clock. Because you already proved you know what you’re doing.”

I nodded. The loose thread on my cuff caught the light. Diana noticed it. She didn’t comment.

“Your first report is due at three,” she said. “Use the office two doors down. It’s empty. If you need anything, ask. And Dean?”

“Yes?”

“Go home at five. Keo’s waiting. The overnight spreadsheets can wait until tomorrow.”

I stood. At the door I stopped. “Diana.”

She looked up.

“Last night you asked who was taking care of me.” I met her eyes. “I still don’t have a full answer. But this morning Keo ate breakfast without coughing. That’s a start.”

Something in her face eased. Not a smile. Just the absence of the usual armor.

“Then we’ll keep going,” she said. “Three o’clock. Don’t be late.”

I stepped into the hallway. The floor was bright with morning light. For the first time in four years I walked toward a desk that had my name on a temporary sign outside the door, and I didn’t feel like I was borrowing someone else’s life to get there.