Page 112 of Wells

My phone buzzes before I reach my office. Sandra Benney's name flashes across the screen.

I answer. "Wells."

"I need to speak with you about Cera Simum."

My hand tightens on the phone. I keep my voice level.

"Go ahead."

"She submitted her resignation. Effective immediately. Were you aware? I noticed she hasn't been here."

I sit at my desk because standing suddenly takes more than I have.

"Some of it."

Sandra pauses. The silence stretches long enough that I know she is choosing her words.

"She cited mental health. Said she needed time to care for herself. I wanted to ask if there is anything I should know from a human resources perspective."

I destroyed her.

"I think she needed a change."

"That's all?"

"Yes."

Sandra exhales.

"Okay, I'll close out her file."

Those words gut me, knowing it's final, that she will never be in this building again.

"I want you to give her a severance of a year's pay. And let her know you're leaving the door open if she ever wants to come back."

Sandra goes quiet again. Twelve months for a three-month employee will raise questions she will not ask.

"I'll prepare the paperwork."

"Thank you."

I end the call and set the phone on the desk.

The resignation makes it real. Cera is cutting every thread that binds us together and walking away.

Mental health.

The severance will keep her from being stranded, but It can't undo what I did, watching her bare herself while I stayed hidden.

Cera's voice cuts through it. You were both of them the whole time, and let me believe otherwise.

The hollow in my chest widens. I don't fight it. There is nothing left to fight for.

I destroyed the one real thing I had because I couldn't stop being the man who hides. Because in the dark is where I belong.

The screen is black in front of me. The cigarette burns down between my fingers.

I know exactly what I could do. I built the system. Thirty seconds and I'd know where her phone is pinging. A minute more and I'd know if she bought a plane ticket, if she went back to the platform under another name, if she called the man whose text I once watched cross her screen.