Every single one drawn by my hand. Every single one revised by me alone.
Every last sketch had only one name on it. Mine.
Not one of the other twelve people in the design department had contributed a single line.
Because none of them ever believed I could land this project.
When the Cloudridge luxury renovation project first launched, Edmund had been eager enough to submit a bid.
But out of 150 design firms, only 44 made the cut.
Pinnacle Design got eliminated in the first round.
Edmund gave up on the spot. I was the only one who kept going.
Every day, I showed up at the construction site and worked alongside the laborers.
Whenever I spotted something wrong, I spoke up. I was more thorough than Cloudridge's own construction supervisor.
One time, I noticed the bathroom drain placement was off and flagged it immediately.
"The drain's positioned so the washing machine and the toilet are going to collide. The machine door won't be able to open. I'd recommend shifting it back about four inches."
The site supervisor was a guy named Ken Lawrence, a stubborn old bulldog of a man who made no effort to hide his annoyance with me.
"That's how it was designed. Whether the door opens or not isn't my problem. I build to the blueprints."
I smiled. "But the interior finishing is on your team. A layout like this is going to cause major problems during renovation. Unless you swap the front-loader for a top-loader, but would the homeowners agree to that? Wouldn't that count as fraud?"
He checked the blueprints, measured the dimensions over and over again.
Then he looked up the washing machine specs, and went completely silent.
After a long pause, he finally asked me.
"How do you know all this so well?"
I didn't bother hiding my calculating smile.
"Because I want this project. I know the exact deviation of every single unit you've got here."
He studied me for a moment, something shifting behind his eyes.
"Kid, you've got grit. Reminds me of myself when I was your age."
It wasn't until later that I learned he was Herbert Delgado's uncle.
Three days later, I walked into a meeting with Delgado himself, carrying a thick stack of proposals.
He glanced at the first page and shook his head.
"Pinnacle doesn't have a Senior Designer on staff. You're not qualified."
The words hit me like a bucket of ice water, cold straight through to the bone.