Across the city, the café was already awake.
Steam from coffee machines curled into the air in soft spirals, mixing with the low hum of conversation and the occasional clink of ceramic cups against saucers.
But at the table near the window, the world felt strangely separate.
Claire sat with both hands wrapped around her coffee cup, not drinking it, just holding it like an anchor.
Liam sat opposite her, he looked like he hadn't properly slept. His tie was slightly loosened, his hair still carrying the disordered texture of a night spent in too many places and not enough rest. His phone lay face-down beside him, as if he didn't trust himself to look at it again.
Claire noticed everything...she always did.
"How is she?" Claire asked quietly.
Liam looked up immediately.
That alone told Claire everything she needed to know
"Better," he said. "Her mother woke up."
Something in Claire's expression softened at once.
"Oh…" she exhaled, and for a moment, genuine relief crossed her face. "That's really good news."
A silence settled between them, not uncomfortable at first—just full.
Claire stirred her coffee slowly, watching the liquid spin as if it might give her answers.
"Were you there all night?" she asked eventually.
Liam didn't answer immediately, not because he was hiding anything but because the truth felt heavier than a simple yes.
"…Yeah," he said finally.
Claire nodded once as if she had already known.
"I figured." was the only thing she said
she didn't say it out but she was jealous of Ava, I mean who wouldn't...but she tried to hold her emotions in at least her mom woke up that's a good reason for him to not reply her... right?
She wanted to ask him why he hadn't texted her back to put her at ease that he was alright... didn't how know how worried she was or was Ava more important?
She looked at him once more and smiled, the smile not reaching her eyes.
"I'm sorry for not responding to your messages" Liam finally apologised
"It's fine, I understand you were busy" she replied although she couldn't shake off how jealous she was of Ava, how she could make her own boyfriend rush to her side.
---
Far across the city, where the skyline cut into the morning sky like shards of glass, the highest floor of a silent glass tower remained untouched by the warmth of daylight.
The office did not feel like morning.
It never really did.
It felt like a place that existed outside of time—where hours meant nothing unless someone chose to acknowledge them.
Alex sat behind his desk without moving.
The city stretched endlessly beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows, alive and indifferent. Cars moved like distant thoughts. People below looked like fragments of a life he wasn't part of.
In front of him, a laptop remained open.
Unfinished reports. Financial summaries. Meeting schedules but none of it mattered. His attention wasn't there, it hadn't been there since yesterday a faint vibration broke the silence. A subtle sound that most people would ignore but Alex noticed everything.
He didn't reach for the phone immediately.
Instead, his fingers paused above the desk for a fraction of a second—as if he was deciding whether he was allowed to care.
Then he picked it up.he screen lit up, it was a medical update just then Damian stepped forward and placed a thick file on the desk.
The sound it made was heavier than it should have been, Alex didn't look at it right away his eyes stayed fixed on his screen
Then slowly— He opened the file.
Page after page containing reports, complaints, internal investigations, Names, Dats, Signatures...
At first, his expression remained neutral but as he read, something in his gaze began to shift—not suddenly, but gradually, like ice forming beneath a still surface.
Mason leaned forward slightly.
"…That bad?"
Damian didn't answer immediately, he didn't need to. Alex turned another page, then another, each one added something the previous didn't have like a pattern, repetition, intent.
And then—a name began appearing too often..."Ava Reynolds"...
This moment Damian finally spoke, his voice was lower than usual.
"She's being targeted."
The words did not land dramatically, they didn't need to because something in Alex changed the instant he heard them not outwardl, not visibly but the air around him shifted.
Mason noticed first.
"Oh," he muttered under his breath. "That look again."
Damian sighed. "Yeah, that one."
Alex closed the file slowly but with a precision that made it feel final.
"What kind of targeting?" he asked.
His voice was calm too calm.
Damian explained what he had gathered for his investigation
Richard Hale, the complaints form previous employees, the workload manipulation, his punishment patterns,the way certain employees were pushed until they broke.
The way Ava's name appeared repeatedly in negative documentation that did not match her performance history, with every sentence, Alex listened without interruption but something in his expression hardened line by line it was not anger in the explosive sense it was something colder, more dangerous. When Damian finished, silence filled the room again.
Mason shifted uncomfortably.
"…Okay," he said slowly. "That's actually worse than I thought."
No one responded.Alex opened the file again he flipped to the final section then stopped, he read it once, then again very slowly making sure he didn't miss anything
At the bottom of the page, the recommendation sat there like a verdict already decided:
"Immediate termination recommended"
The room felt still even Mason stopped breathing properly. Damian watched Alex carefully, because he recognized what was coming, it was something far more deliberate. Alex closed the file then placed it down the sound was quiet. He stood up from his sit picked up his coat.
Damian's voice came immediately.
"Where are you going?"
Alex adjusted his cuff slightly, his expression remained composed but his eyes had already changed.
"I'm going to my company," he said.
Then, quieter—
"And I'm going to find out exactly who thought they could touch what belongs under my name."
No one corrected him not even Mason, he couldn't crack any joke because at that moment—
They all understood something very clearly.
Richard Hale had not yet realized what kind of problem he had just created.