The first resignation didn't make the news.
That was how Aaliyah knew it wasn't performative.
It arrived as a footnote in an internal bulletin, an executive stepping down "to allow leadership renewal during a period of structural review."
No scandal.
No denial.
No replacement announced.
Just absence.
Aaliyah noticed it while scanning the audit follow-ups, the name catching her eye because it had appeared, quietly, repeatedly, in the eighteen-month reconstruction.
Not as a villain.
As a pause.
"That's the first," Elise said when Aaliyah flagged it.
Rowan looked up from her screen. "You think it's connected?"
Aaliyah nodded. "They saw themselves laid out in time."
And some people could not survive that sight.
Within days, two more departures followed.
Different institutions.
Different regions.
Same language.
Strategic transition.
New phase.
Personal decision.
No one said audit.
No one needed to.
