Chapter 21: Who really is she?

Andres's POV

"She's suspicious."

Jefferson didn't even look up. "You've said that four times today, boss."

"Because that's the truth."

I stood from my desk and walked to the window. The city below was moving the way it always did, busy and completely normal, completely indifferent to the fact that I hadn't been able to think straight since yesterday.

"A woman appears out of nowhere," I said, mostly to the glass, "no interview, no file, no proper process. Gets handed a senior position like it's nothing. And you want me to just accept that?"

"I want you to look at the quarterly numbers you've been ignoring." Jefferson set his pen down. "They're right there on your desk."

"I'll get to them."

"You've been saying that since nine."

I didn't respond to that.

The numbers weren't what was bothering me. It was the way she'd left that meeting room. No argument, no desperation, nothing. Just her bag on her shoulder and the door closing softly behind her, as she'd only stopped in for a visit.

"She doesn't react like a normal person," I said.

"You've said that too."

"Jefferson."

"Boss."

I turned around. "Has any employee, in the history of this company, ever been fired to their face and asked if we could finish the meeting first?"

He pressed his lips together.

"Don't smile," I told him.

"I'm not smiling."

"You were about to."

He straightened in his chair. "I was going to say that not scaring easily isn't a crime."

"It's strange."

"It's confidence."

"On her first week?" I shook my head. "That's not confidence, that's something else entirely."

Jefferson leaned back, watching me the way he did when he'd already made up his mind about something but was choosing to be patient. "Every single problem you've brought to me today has her name in it somewhere. Everyone." He paused. "Just something I noticed."

I ignored that and moved back toward the desk.

"She saved your life," he added quietly.

"I know that."

"Does it mean anything to you?"

"People do things for reasons." I sat down. "She had a reason to be at that lagoon. I just haven't found out what it is yet."

He exhaled softly through his nose and reached for his files. "Okay, boss."

Just that...Okay?

It sat with me in a way I didn't like.

I started moving things around on the desk without any clear purpose. The printed emails from this morning. My jacket from yesterday is still slightly stiff at the collar from the water. My own phone.

And then the other one, I stopped.

Her phone.

I'd picked it up from the shoreline after she left for the taxi, intending to return it when I got back. Then Evans had shown up, and everything else took over, and it ended up in my drawer overnight, wrapped in one of Jefferson's monitor cloths.

I picked it up slowly.

"She has no password on this," I said.

Jefferson glanced over. "Hm?"

"No lock screen. There was no fingerprint. The screen just opens." I turned it over in my hand. "I noticed it yesterday at the lagoon."

"Maybe she never got around to setting one."

"Maybe." I pressed the side button and the screen came on.

Plain home screen. Nothing unusual at first glance.

Then I saw the notifications.

A neat row of unread messages at the top, all from the same contact. Not a name, just a single letter.

I went completely still, and I couldn't even move.

Seven messages. All from Q. The timestamps started from yesterday evening and ran through to this morning. Every single one of them is sitting there, unopened and waiting.

I didn't read them. I just looked at the name.

"What is it?" Jefferson asked.

"Messages." I turned the screen toward him briefly. "Seven of them. All from someone saved as Q. All unread." I set the phone flat on the desk. "She came in with a different number this morning. I noticed Morgan texting it in the corridor."

Jefferson's expression shifted.

"So she hasn't seen any of these," I said.

"Because she doesn't have the phone," he replied slowly.

"And whoever Q is," I continued, "they don't know that. They've been sending messages since last night, waiting on a reply that was never going to come."

The room got very quiet.

Jefferson leaned forward slightly, elbows on his knees. "Someone has been trying to reach her this whole time, on a phone she lost, and they still have no idea."

"Right."

He was quiet for a moment. "What are you going to do with it?"

I looked at the screen again. Q's last message had come in at 7:42 that morning. I still didn't open it. Just stared at the timestamp, the little number seven sitting in the corner of the notification, like it had all the patience in the world.

"Find out who Q is," I said.

Jefferson stood slowly, gathered his files, and tucked them under his arm. He stopped at the door and looked back at me, something gentle and cautious in his expression.

"Whatever you find," he said, "just be careful what you do with it."

He left.

The office settled into silence around me, the kind that feels heavier when you're the only one left in it.

I sat there with her phone on the desk, screen still glowing, seven unread messages from a person who had spent the night and most of the morning reaching out to someone who never answered.

I turned the phone over once. Then back again.

She had arrived at that lagoon before anyone. Before Evans, before anyone else even knew something was wrong.

She still came, and she left this behind.

I pulled the phone closer and stared at it for a long time, not opening anything, just thinking.

It was one letter and a woman who walked around with no password on her phone, like she had absolutely nothing to hide.

Or like losing it was never part of the plan.