“Arjun Verma. Do not respond to the letter.”

Failure to SO CAUSE within 72 hours will result in immediate termination and referral to the Cyber Crime Cell. Arjun’s hands went cold. Fourteen million dollars. He didn’t have fourteen hundred in his savings. He couldn’t even transfer a lunch bill without a supervisor’s OTP.

“That’s fine,” said Ila. “You will. But first, you need to so cause — not for the bank. For yourself. Write down the real reason you did it. The one buried so deep you forgot it existed.”

At 11:47 PM, his phone buzzed. Unknown number.

Nothing. Not a single result. The search engine showed him show cause notices , legal forums, HR templates. But so cause was a ghost. As if the phrase had been invented just for him.

But there it was, pinned to his cubicle wall with a bright red pushpin.

“They fired me anyway. Effective last Friday. I’m just serving out my notice period. But here’s the thing, Arjun: they didn’t fire me for the money transfer. They fired me because I played the game . I accepted their premise. I said, ‘Yes, this event happened, and here is my cause.’ And that became the record. The so cause letter is a weapon. It turns your own words into evidence against you.”

He did what any confused person would do. He Googled it.