Chapter 1 - THE ENVELOPE HE REFUSED TO OPEN
Gabriel Costa waited until Clara Bennett had disappeared into the elevator before he opened the envelope.
Eleven lines.
That was all.
Four years of service, countless nights of work, a thousand problems solved before he even knew they existed, reduced to eleven carefully written lines.
He read them twice.
Then a third time.
The final sentence was the one that bothered him.
I respectfully request that my remaining responsibilities be transferred to another employee. I will not be available for personal assignments following my departure.
Personal assignments.
Gabriel stared at those words.
Clara had handled everything.
His schedule.
His travel.
His business correspondence.
The endless demands of men who believed they could purchase his attention.
She knew which politicians could be trusted, which bankers were lying, and which members of his organization needed to be watched.
She also knew things nobody else did.
That he hated sleeping in complete darkness.
That he never drank whiskey when he was genuinely angry.
That he called his younger sister every Sunday because he'd promised their dying mother he would.
Clara had learned those things without asking.
And somehow, he'd begun assuming she would always be there.
Gabriel folded the letter.
Placed it back inside the envelope.
Then reached for his phone.
“Yolanda.”
“Yes, Mr. Costa?”
“Where's Clara?”
A pause.
“She left, sir.”
“I know that.”
Silence.
Gabriel closed his eyes.
“Did she say where she was going?”
“No, sir.”
He ended the call.
Then looked toward the empty chair outside his office.
May you like
For the first time in four years, it occurred to him that he didn't know where Clara Bennett went when she wasn't working.
And that realization bothered him far more than it should have.
