13/08/2026
"You're forty-three, Diane, and you still think anyone in this building respects you? Pack your desk by lunch." My CEO, Marcus Webb, said it loud enough for the entire open-floor marketing department to hear, his Rolex catching the morning light as he tossed a termination letter onto my keyboard. I'm Diane Holloway, senior brand strategist at Pinnacle Athletics for eleven years. I built the campaign that saved this company in 2019 when our stock was tanking. I trained Marcus when he was a twenty-six-year-old intern who couldn't spell 'demographic.' Now he was firing me in front of forty colleagues because I'd refused to sign off on a campaign that recycled a Black designer's portfolio without credit. I didn't cry. I didn't argue. I just picked up the letter, folded it neatly into thirds, and slid it into my blazer pocket. 'Understood, Marcus. I'll be out by noon.' He smirked. He shouldn't have.