Every pair of eyes that met mine dropped instantly, heads ducking behind monitors, suddenly very busy.
Kenneth faltered, his expression flickering with unease.
"And the design drawings? You didn't include a single one. Send them to me. Now."
I leaned back in my chair, watching him with an unhurried gaze.
"No."
"No?"
His temper was slipping.
"On what grounds? That's a company project!"
I kept my voice even, measured. "You all voted me off the team. Those designs are my personal work. Why would I hand them to you?"
He was practically snarling now. "Your personal work? Without this company, your designs are nothing but scrap paper!"
I nodded. "Sure. Then go design your own. Stop asking me for scrap paper."
"What kind of attitude is—"
"Kenneth." Edmund pushed open his office door. "Send him in. You go contact the Cloudridge people."
Kenneth shot me a glare but stepped aside to clear the aisle.
I stood and walked into the director's office, every pair of eyes in the department following me like spectators at a show.
Edmund gestured for me to sit. I didn't move.
"Mr. James, just say what you need to say."
He flashed me the same fake smile I'd been looking at for nine years.
"The decision to reassign the Cloudridge project lead was made by senior management after careful consideration."
His fingers tapped the desk in that habitual rhythm of his.
"Kenneth has the credentials and the connections. He's a better fit for this project. You've been in this industry long enough to understand how these things work without me spelling it out."
"But I've been on this for a year!" My eyes burned. "Do you have any idea how many doors got slammed in my face? How many people looked right through me? How many nights I worked until dawn?"
"Not a single person in this department believed in this project. I wrote the proposal alone. I coordinated with every agency alone. I drafted every design and drew every blueprint alone. And now that we're about to sign, you hand it to someone else? How is that fair?"
"Ronnie," he said, switching to that patronizing, fatherly tone. "I'll admit you contributed to this project. But let's be honest, it was the company's platform that made it possible. On your own, you couldn't have gotten past the front gate at Cloudridge."
He looked at me, his eyes carrying the weight of a lecture he clearly enjoyed giving.