The car was silent for a while.
City lights flickered across the windshield as they drove.
Then the manager broke the silence, glancing sideways.
"Are you sure?" he asked softly.
"You really want her as your secretary? That girl… she'll remind you of the day you almost lost your life."
Kalix didn't answer right away.
His gaze was out the window, lost in memories.
Then he spoke, voice quiet… steady.
"It'll also remind me of something else."
He paused.
"That there's someone out there… whose world would end if I died."
The manager didn't interrupt.
"She cried for me," he whispered.
"Not like a stranger would. Not like someone who just found a body. She cried like… like her soul would shatter if I didn't open my eyes."
He leaned back, closing his eyes for a second.
"I never forgot her," he said. "The way she held me… like she was holding on to life itself. Like I was her last hope."
"I didn't know her name. I didn't know anything. Just her face… her voice trembling through sobs… her hands—burning warm even in that snow."
He let out a slow breath.
"For a year, I searched. Faces blurred. Leads went cold. She disappeared like a ghost who came to save me and vanished again."
The manager stayed silent.
He had never seen his friend like this—so sure, yet so… wounded.
"And then one day," Kalix continued, "I was flipping through application files. Just routine stuff."
His voice softened.
"And there she was. Her photo. Her name. Her."
The manager turned, slightly stunned.
"You're sure?"
"More than I've ever been about anything," he replied.
"I told you to send her that offer. No interview. No tests. Just bring her here."
"But why?" the manager asked.
He looked straight ahead now.
"Because I need her by my side. Not just as a secretary…"
A pause.
"But so she never disappears again."
He clenched his jaw.
"I have questions. So many. And I've been guessing for a year. Wondering who she was. What pain made her cry like that. Why she walked away before I could thank her…"
He turned to the manager.
"And now that I've found her—
I don't want to let her slip away again."