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Chapter 15.The Pressure

last update Last Updated: 2025-11-27 22:34:36

By the time Elara stepped onto her floor, she knew something was wrong.

The silence told her.

Not the usual office hush.

Not concentration.

Not routine.

This was a silence that followed her like a shadow.

Conversations stopped when she walked by. A pair of analysts she recognized looked up—then away—so fast it almost hurt to watch. Someone closed a chat window the second she passed their desk.

They all knew.

HR had moved faster than she expected.

She tightened her grip on her bag and walked toward her station, bracing for what she knew was waiting.

It didn’t take long.

“Ms. Hayes?”

A voice she’d heard a hundred times but never like this—administrative, stiff, rehearsed.

She turned.

Marla from HR stood near her desk, tablet in hand, expression polished into something that wasn’t quite neutral.

“Elara,” Marla said, “I need a moment.”

Of course she did.

Elara followed her into a small conference room just off the hall. The blinds were half-drawn, light slicing through them in narrow line
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