로그인At our company's tenth-anniversary party, my four childhood friends, who were also my business partners, slid a contract in front of me. "There's a serious PR crisis in Dayaka, and we need the whole team out there. "Pull this off, and we'll own this industry. "Cora, you've always been decisive. You're not going to back out just because there might be fighting, right?" Jared Blake wore his usual confident smile. Standing behind him was Faye Sterling, the illegitimate daughter the Sterling family had only recently brought home. I signed it right in front of them. As everyone cheered, Jared made me a promise. "Cora, once this is over and we're back, we'll get married." Later, I pushed open the conference room door. The projector was still hooked up to Jared's laptop, and on the screen was a group chat they'd forgotten to close. "Dayaka's settled?" "Done. One empty promise was all it took to get her to that hellhole. Now Faye can stay in Nova City and take over as senior partner, fair and square." "Jared's taking the biggest hit, though. He has to keep playing fiancé to that control freak." I stood in front of the screen, holding my files. Behind me, the door opened, and I heard the four of them laughing and talking as they crowded around their little princess. I turned around. The moment our eyes met, every smile in the room froze.
더 보기The night the summit ended, I turned down every dinner invitation and drove alone to Professor Vance's apartment uptown.He cooked me a warm, homemade meal himself."Are you planning to stay in Nova City this time?" He handed me a glass of red wine he'd let breathe.I shook my head."Next week I'm flying to Senar City. The Alliance has a new international coordination project there.""Another five years?""Maybe longer."He paused, still holding his glass. Then he smiled, pleased."Go on, kid. That's the stage you belong on."A cool wind blew as I said goodbye to the professor.I'd just walked out of his building when I saw Jared's car parked in the shadows by the curb.He got out but didn't rush over. He stopped a few steps away, keeping a polite distance."Faye left the industry two years ago. She couldn't take the pressure of front-line PR."Jared spoke quickly, as if he were desperate to explain himself."The four of us cut her off a long time ago. Cora, we really do know we were w
Cora's POV:In the fifth year, the situation in Dayaka finally stabilized.I was 35 that year.I'd risen from a newly arrived envoy to the International Relief Alliance's Chief Crisis Officer.The Dayaka Multilateral Mediation Model I'd developed had even been adopted as a textbook case study in global public crisis intervention.At the end of that year, Alliance headquarters arranged for me to fly back to Nova City as a special representative to the Global Public Relations Summit, where I'd give the opening keynote.When my flight landed at Nova City International Airport, I finally regained access to my personal communication devices after five years.The moment my screen came on, my old voicemails and work emails flooded in.Jared alone had sent hundreds of emails.The early ones were condescending demands and orders. Then came anxious questions, and finally, apologies.The most recent one was timestamped three months earlier."Cora, I'm not asking you to forgive me. I just hope you
Cora's POV:Dayaka was 100 times harsher than any power struggle across a conference table in Nova City.In my first week at the crisis intervention center, I rode with a relief convoy to the edge of the fighting.The air was always thick with gunsmoke and scorching dust.Harlan, the center's director, handed me a heavy bulletproof vest."Regretting signing that five-year agreement yet?"I fastened the buckles and shook my head."Quite the opposite. I've never been more certain of a decision in my career."Harlan smiled."Conditions here are brutal. You don't miss the good life in Nova City at all? Or your friends back there?"I adjusted my helmet strap, my face calm."All I've got in Nova City are old clients and former coworkers. No friends."Harlan didn't ask any more.Three months into the project, the Humanitarian Corridor Multilateral Negotiation Plan I'd led the effort to draft proved crucial when fighting suddenly broke out.Both sides agreed to a 48-hour ceasefire, allowing hu
The next day, word spread throughout Nova City's PR industry that Cora had started her classified mission as an envoy ahead of schedule.International Relief Alliance headquarters issued an official announcement. Cora had ranked first in the overall evaluation and been chosen for a special program at the Dayaka Crisis Intervention Center.That deployment agreement had never been an ordinary business contract. It was an offer to join an elite program, and Cora was the only person in Nova City who'd made it.The employees who'd cornered and mocked her in the lounge two days earlier went pale when they saw the announcement.Outside the break room, Brianna, Faye's newly promoted assistant, was still trying to explain herself to Jared."Mr. Blake, we were just joking around with Cora that day. Who knew she was so petty she'd actually leave?"Jared stopped and looked at her coldly."That cup of scalding black coffee two days ago. Did you knock it over?"Brianna's smile froze. "I swear, my ha












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