"Two years ago, when Chen's project blew up, I'd just come out of surgery for appendicitis. You called me in to fix the drafts. The strain tore my stitches open and I had to get re-sutured. Afterward, you told Mr. Delgado it was a 'team effort.'"
"And now you want to lecture me about gratitude? Tell me, which one of us actually has none?"
I held his gaze.
"Everyone in this department, yourself included, takes freelance jobs on the side. Have I ever? Not once. Not even a five-hundred-square-foot apartment renovation for a few hundred bucks. Every single project went through the company's books. You told me not to forget where I came from. Have you remembered any of that?"
Edmund's face cycled through shades of red and white before settling into something dark.
"Ronnie! Watch your tone! You want to know why everyone froze you out? Why you got zero votes? Maybe take a look in the mirror!"
"I'll ask you one last time. The designs. Are you handing them over or not?"
"No."
Not a second of hesitation.
"Then I take it you don't want this job anymore?"
"Take it however you like."
He was visibly seething.
"Fine. Don't come crying to me later."