The Night Four Little Girls Chose a Father

CEO of one of the largest development firms in the city. A name that carried weight in rooms like this. A woman who had built something enormous and paid for it in ways that didn’t show up in headlines.

She shook hands. She nodded at the right moments. She said the right things.

And all the while, her eyes kept scanning.

Looking.

Counting.

Searching.

Until they found the table.

And then—

She stopped.

Not visibly.