He sat with his wife’s photo, waiting for a son who had already boarded without him

means they freed you. Very conveniently for us.

He slid a folder toward me. Not thick, just heavy enough to matter.

— Senior Vice President, — he said. — Systems Strategy and Infrastructure. Full autonomy. Your own team. Compensation that reflects what you’ve been doing for years.

My breath caught—not because I doubted myself, but because the offer aligned continue reading …