20/08/2026
"Step aside, sweetheart. Real architects are talking now." Marcus said it loud enough for the entire boardroom to hear, then laughed like he'd just told the joke of the century. I'm Elena, thirty-four, and for six months I'd been the lead designer on the Whitman Tower project — the same project Marcus had been demoted off of last spring. He didn't know that yet. He just saw a quiet woman in a navy blazer, hair pulled back, sketchbook hugged to her chest like a shield. The clients — three executives from Whitman Holdings — shifted uncomfortably in their leather chairs. My boss opened his mouth to intervene. I raised one finger. Just one. Because Marcus had spent the last twenty minutes pitching MY blueprints back to me, calling them 'his vision,' and I wanted him to finish every single word.