Zara Winters.
The name still felt foreign, but she wore it like a mask made of steel. Zara Raine was buried beneath years of planning, pain, and purpose. Even her reflection dared not whisper it.
In a sterile waiting room filled with fresh-faced applicants in wrinkled suits and hopeful smiles, Zara sat still. Calm. Controlled. She didn't rehearse answers. She rehearsed revenge.
"Zara Winters?"
She rose, fluid and poised. The assistant guiding her was frazzled and coffee-stained, a minor player in a larger stage.
The office was all chrome and coldness. At the desk sat Celeste Myles—HR manager, loyal ValeCorp veteran, and unwitting gatekeeper to Zara's first step.
"Your résumé is... thin," Celeste said, eyes never lifting from the papers.
"I'm resourceful. And I don't crack under pressure."
"We'll see," Celeste replied flatly.
The interview was clinical. Questions about workflow, time management, office dynamics. Zara answered each with enough truth to pass, but not enough to be memorable.
Invisibility was the mission.
"Why ValeCorp?" Celeste finally asked.
Zara paused just long enough to make the silence uncomfortable.
"Because I believe in building from the ground up," she said. "And because I don't believe in losing."
That made Celeste look up. A flicker of recognition? Instinctual dislike? Either worked.
"Thank you. We'll be in touch."
Zara smiled politely and left.
She already knew she'd be hired.