Chapter 3

At five o'clock, CEO Jason waddled in looking like he'd already started celebrating, his round belly leading the way, face flushed, grinning.

"I hear we've got a genius idea cooking in here? What are the pre-sale numbers looking like?"

The moment Jason opened his mouth, Cassie was right there to meet him.

"Jason! You're here at exactly the right time!"

She steered him toward the big screen and pulled up the projected data charts she'd just generated.

"Take a look. This is organic referral data from the first two hours after I dropped a hint about the deal."

On the screen, a red line shot upward at nearly a vertical angle.

"Estimated DAU is already past three million. By midnight when we go live, projected revenue could hit $50 million!"

Cassie's face was glowing, her voice buzzing with energy.

Jason stared at those numbers like he'd forgotten how to blink.

"Fif— $50 million?!"

"That's right. On top of that, we're looking at at least two million verified card-linked users!"

Cassie pressed her advantage.

"Jason, with these numbers, you could easily pitch a Series B valuation three times higher than today."

Jason rubbed his hands together and kept nodding, practically bouncing.

"Incredible! Cassie, you are this company's golden ticket!"

Then he turned to look at me, and his expression shifted entirely.

"Erin, I've been telling you, you are too conservative."

"Your thinking is stuck in the past. No wonder we can't move the needle this quarter."

I stood up, expression neutral.

"You're right. That's why I've already transferred full operational control and system access to Cassie."

Jason grunted.

"Handing it off doesn't mean you get to wash your hands of it."

He tapped the table, shifting into his signature dad-speech mode.

"Erin, Cassie's idea is brilliant, but she's young. She doesn't have experience running an operation at this scale."

"You need to stay on-site tonight for the whole campaign, back her up, and make sure nothing falls through the cracks."

Classic move. On the surface it sounded like he was trusting my experience, but what he actually wanted was a built-in scapegoat standing by.

"Jason, I've been working late for two straight weeks. I was planning to use PTO tonight." I pushed back lightly.

"We are at a critical inflection point for this company, and you call yourself a veteran? That's it?"

"You're staying. I'm not asking."

Cassie stood to the side, trying and failing to hide the smile spreading across her face.

David chimed in right on schedule. "Erin, Jason is just looking out for you. Let Cassie show you how things are done in this era."

I looked at this little pack of people blinded by greed.

I slipped my hand into my pocket and pressed save on the voice recorder.

"Fine. I'll stay."

"But let me be clear upfront: Cassie is in charge of this. Whatever happens tonight, I am only here to watch. I will not touch a single key."

Jason waved me off impatiently.

"Do whatever you want, just be here!"

He turned back to Cassie and lit up again.

"Cassie, go all out! You've got every resource in this company behind you!"

Eleven-thirty at night.

Cassie was perched at what used to be my director's desk, commanding the room.

"Jake, double the server bandwidth."

"David, tell every merchant in Business Dev that they need to double their inventory tonight. If anyone goes out of stock, they can forget about ever getting featured again."

I sat in the corner and watched them celebrate.

Ten minutes to midnight.