The message sat untouched in Sephiroth's inbox for weeks after the director's disappearance. One of many lies, but this one stung more than most. A short, quick stab to the heart in three words, "I appreciate you. - L"
He really had no intention to look at it. Not after…
As tended to be the case, curiosity did eventually get the better of him. He’d been tired, life and work and everything seemingly wearing him down… but it had all been numb. A vacuum of feeling.
Reading Lazard’s message was both ice water and liquid fire.
The phone didn’t survive. Something half-melted and shattered was found embedded in the wall sometime later, assumed to have been a phone. Apparently an impromptu rearranging of sparse office furniture hid the hole.
Immediately after, he started writing a letter of resignation.