The first missed date landed on a Tuesday.
Aaliyah noticed it at 9:14 a.m., halfway through her second cup of coffee, while cross-checking the implementation tracker against newly updated policy disclosures. One institution, mid-sized, regionally respected, had quietly passed the deadline it had committed to just two weeks earlier.
No announcement.
No explanation.
Just… absence.
She didn't react immediately.
She refreshed the page once.
Then again.
Still nothing.
She opened the log and entered the line with the same calm precision she'd been practicing for months.
Implementation deadline missed. No public explanation provided.
She added the timestamp.
Then she sat back and let the moment settle.
This was it.
Not a collapse.
Not a scandal.
A failure to follow through, now visible.
At the morning briefing, Aaliyah didn't dramatize it.
She didn't need to.
