Chapter 4 - The Golden Ticket
Clara returned to Apex Pinnacle that evening dreading her shift. Her eyes were red from crying over her lost project, and her back ached before she even picked up a mop. She clocked in at the basement maintenance office, her gaze fixed firmly on the floor.
"Hey, Vance," her supervisor, a gruff man named Carl, barked across the room. "Look at the board."
Clara trudged over to the corkboard, expecting to see a notice about budget cuts or reduced hours. Instead, a pristine white flyer was pinned to the center.
Apex Architectural Designs: Internal Advancement Traineeship. Seeking analytical minds for our Corporate Finance Division. Open exclusively to internal support and maintenance staff. Starting salary: $80,000 + Full Medical Benefits.
Clara stopped breathing. Eighty thousand dollars. Full medical benefits. That money would pay off the rent. It would cover Leo’s specialist appointments. It would change their entire universe.
"You're the only one here who reads those giant math books, Clara," Carl said softly, his gruff demeanor fading. "You'd be crazy not to drop an application in the box."
May you like
Clara reached out, her trembling fingers tracing the words on the paper. It felt like a trap. Billion-dollar corporations did not hand out golden tickets to the people who scrubbed their toilets. But as she thought of Leo shivering in his bed, her hesitation evaporated.
She marched into the supply closet, grabbed a piece of blank printer paper, and began writing her cover letter by hand. She didn't have a flash drive anymore, but she had her brain, and she was going to fight for this.
