He fired me in front of everyone on his first day as CEO. He called me a “relic” and had security walk me out like a criminal. He thought he was a disruptor. He had no idea I was the linchpin holding a $120 million deal together, protected by a contract clause he never bothered to read. The next morning, his secretary stormed his office in a panic, holding the one document that proved he’d just destroyed his own company.
Part 1 The bouquet of congratulations wilted in my hands as the words hit me like shrapnel. “You’re done here. Clear out.” His first day as CEO. My last as anything. The marble lobby echoed with the silence of a hundred witnesses pretending not to see. As I walked away, heels clicking a funeral march…