He did not notice the irony in my voice. The next day at the office I struggled to focus. Meetings passed in a blur while colleagues discussed campaign strategies, advertising metrics, and budget projections. Yet the same sentence repeated itself again and again inside my mind.
Your career can wait.
Late in the afternoon my assistant Olivia Rhodes leaned into my office doorway with a concerned expression.
“Natalie, are you feeling alright today,” she asked gently. “You look exhausted.”
“Just family matters,” I replied.
By the time the workday ended I already had a plan. It was not particularly kind. But it was perfectly fair. If Calvin wanted to play a game where my opinion did not matter, then I would simply change the rules.
I knocked on the door of the executive office and stepped inside when Deborah Langley, our company’s chief executive officer, invited me to sit down.
“Deborah, I need to discuss something confidential,” I began.
I explained the entire situation from Calvin’s ultimatum to my idea for handling it.