The CEO's indulgence—a trap or deep affection?

It started going off the rails with a transfer request. Clara Vance had been with the multinational conglomerate for three years — efficient, tight-lipped, never casting an extra glance at her superiors. Her direct boss, Adrian Hale, was the youngest member of the board — clean, ambitious, and cold, with a ruthless edge. By all logic, their interactions should have been limited to signatures and approvals. But when Adrian Hale stared down at the transfer form she had submitted, his fingertips rubbed along the edge of the paper, back and forth, and for a long time, the pen refused to fall. Something was off — he didn’t want to sign it, and he certainly didn’t want to let her go. What Clara Vance didn’t yet know was that she was about to face far more than an ordinary exit interview.