Chapter 3

At 9:30 the next morning, Janet posted the latest version of the proposal in the Evercrest project group chat. I was only three pages in when my blood went cold.

She had used the one term Evercrest had explicitly banned that year. She had also included outdated figures Mr. Lloyd had repeatedly warned us not to use.

She had even managed to get Evercrest's chairman's name wrong while copying it from the previous year's press release.

I posted a warning in the group chat. "There are serious errors on pages three, five, and twelve. I don't recommend sending this to the client."

Janet replied immediately. "Zoe, aren't you being a little too sensitive? The AI pulled this together using information from all over the Internet, and there's nothing wrong with the logic."

I typed back. "The client's internal requirements aren't publicly available."

Jim jumped in. "Enough. Zoe, you refused to cooperate with the handoff, and now you're tearing down someone else's work. The Evercrest project isn't your chance to seek attention."

Seek attention?

Anger surged through me, leaving my fingertips numb as I stared at the words.

A second later, my phone rang. It was Mr. Lloyd from Evercrest.

I answered.

His voice was colder than usual. "Zoe, who sent this version of the proposal?"

I glanced toward the conference room. Jim and Janet were already setting up for the video meeting.

"Is something wrong with it, Mr. Lloyd?"

After two seconds of silence, he said, "You misspelled our chairman's name."

My heart sank.

"And page twelve uses messaging we explicitly told you not to use. It exposed us to regulatory risk last year. You know that."

Of course I knew. Mr. Lloyd had personally warned me about that exact restriction at 1:00 am, and I had flagged it in red.

His voice grew even colder. "If we don't receive a reasonable explanation by 10:00 am, Evercrest will suspend further consideration of this partnership."

I ended the call and went straight into the conference room. Janet was connecting her laptop to the main screen.

Jim's face hardened when he saw me. "Who told you to come in?"

I set my phone on the table. "Mr. Lloyd just called. There's a serious problem with the proposal."

Janet went pale. "That can't be right. The AI checked everything."

I looked at her. "AI doesn't know what Mr. Lloyd told me in private to avoid or what problems Evercrest ran into last year."

Her eyes immediately filled with tears. "If you knew about this, Zoe, why didn't you tell me sooner?"

I almost laughed. "I warned you in the group chat."

Jim slammed his hand on the table. "Enough. This isn't the time to point fingers."

Then he turned to me as if his next demand were perfectly reasonable. "Fix the proposal immediately. And you'll explain everything during the video meeting at 10:00 am."

I stared at him. "I thought you said you didn't need me."

Jim's expression soured. "Zoe, this is no time to get emotional."

Janet spoke softly. "The project comes first, Zoe. Please, just help us out."

I glanced down at my phone.

Vivian had sent me another message half an hour earlier. "You must sign the settlement agreement by the end of the day. If you don't, your claim will be treated as a bad-faith claim."

I looked up. "Where's my 88,000-dollar commission?"

Jim's jaw tightened. "Didn't the AI already issue the payment?"

The conference room went dead silent.

I held his gaze as a slow smile spread across my face. "Fine. Then let AI deal with the Evercrest problem too."

I sat down in the corner, pulled up the AI tool, and typed as they watched. "Draft a response stating that all errors in the Evercrest proposal have been corrected and all risks to the client have been resolved."

The AI generated a polished response almost instantly. I didn't change a word.