#Chapter 20- Salary Advance

Kingston I approved Cora’s salary advance without pressing further. She’d hesitated when I asked why she needed the money, and her silence said more than words ever could. Something was wrong, but she clearly didn’t want to share it. I respected that. For now. Still, as she walked out of my office, her shoulders were too tense, her pace too hurried. Not the kind of hurry that comes with excitement; this was the type rooted in anxiety. I should have let it go. But my instincts were already sharpening. I stayed late to finish reports, but I needed to clear my head, so I headed to the company gym to work off the tension. The gym had floor-to-ceiling windows, and as I moved through my last set of weighted squats, I caught a glimpse of movement in the parking lot below. Cora. She was standing near the edge of the lot, her back turned to the building. A man approached her, looking disheveled as he glanced around like he expected to be jumped. She handed him an envelope, and