Three weeks after Barnaby's rescue — three weeks in which Mark had made exactly zero official inquiries into the matter, a silence Elena found considerably more unsettling than an accusation would have been — Vance Enterprises officially launched its bid for the Apex Global account.
It was, by any measure, the biggest pitch of the quarter. Apex Global was a logistics conglomerate looking to rebrand ahead of a public offering, and half of Manhattan's marketing firms were circling the opportunity like it was the last lifeboat off a sinking ship. Landing it would cement Elena's position at Vance Enterprises beyond any question Mark or the board could still raise. Losing it would hand every skeptic in the building exactly the ammunition they were waiting for.
"No pressure," Priya said dryly,
