I’m the quiet cog in the machine—the one who handles the numbers. In a mid-sized company, that means I’m the person who compiles the internal reports, the cold, hard truths of how well, or how poorly, our department is actually doing. My boss, Amara, was an architect of illusion. She had a knack for selling a future we weren't building, and lately, the pressure on her had become a visible, phys...
