Chapter 3

Back at my desk, I immediately set up an all-hands project channel for the Stellar Motors brief and tagged everyone.

"The Stellar project is officially underway. First-round pitch is next Monday. Drop whatever you're doing and shift your full focus here. By midnight tonight, I expect a preliminary creative proposal from every single person—no less than five thousand words."

If the daily logs felt like torture, this announcement was an outright death sentence.

The chat exploded instantly.

"Are you serious, Sue?! Five thousand words? Tonight?! It's already almost seven!"

"This is insane! Completely insane! Five thousand words for a preliminary brief?! My college thesis wasn't even this unhinged!"

"How are we supposed to create anything like this? We're going to burn out before we even start designing!"

Chloe jumped into the thread right on cue:

"Director Sue, the team is already exhausted from keeping up with the daily logs. Forcing them to pull an all-nighter for a concept paper... isn't that a little inhumane?"

On the surface, she sounded like she was standing up for her peers. In reality, she was pouring gasoline on the fire, deliberately funneling all their collective rage straight at me.

Perfect. The tension was building right on schedule.

I didn't bother replying in the chat. Instead, I texted my assistant: "Have HR pull the overtime authorization sheets for Creative Team 1 from this past week and bring them to me."

Half an hour later, my assistant dropped a stack of signed timesheets onto my desk.

I flipped through them one by one. When my eyes landed on a particular name, a cold smirk touched my lips.

Marcus.

My Associate Creative Director. A corporate climber who had been with the agency for seven years—strictly average in raw talent, but wildly ambitious.

Over the past few days, he was the only person in the entire department who hadn't uttered a single complaint. In fact, he had submitted the most "textbook" daily logs every single day.

Three thousand words of pure corporate jargon and safe milestones, polished so cleanly it looked like it was generated by an AI.

And there his name was on the overtime sheet, his stated justification reading: Preliminary preparation for the Stellar Motors initiative.

What an absolute model employee.

I picked up the line and dialed Marcus's extension. "Step into my office."

Marcus arrived promptly, his face wearing his signature mild-mannered smile.

"Sue, you needed me?"

"What's your take on the Stellar brief?" I slid the paperwork toward him.

He scanned it and immediately knitted his brows. "Sue, if I'm being completely candid, this is a massive uphill battle. The client wants disruptive innovation, but the budget boundaries are extremely tight.”

“More importantly... looking at the current department climate, morale is through the floor. I doubt the team is in any shape to produce top-tier work."

He let out a heavy sigh, putting on a flawless display of deep concern.

"Sue, I really believe our top priority right now should be steadying the team's emotions and pulling back on those new regulations. Just a little adjustment. If we lose their trust, the team falls apart."

"Oh?" I raised an eyebrow. "What do you propose?"

"I think Chloe might be young, but she made a fair point," he said, smoothly slipping in his hidden agenda. "A creative department really shouldn't be choked by rigid operational metrics. Don't you think we could suspend the daily logging requirement for now and let everyone catch their breath?"

I looked at him, laughing on the inside.

He wanted to weaponize the public sentiment Chloe had stirred up to force me into backing down. That way, he could assert his own influence over the department while coming out looking like the benevolent savior of the team.

Quite the neat little scheme.