Julian didn't fire her. That would be too loud. Instead, he:

By the time Sarah realized she was being hunted, the board had already signed her severance package. Julian took her office by noon. The Aftermath

The corner office on the 42nd floor didn’t smell like success; it smelled like expensive sandalwood and ozone. Julian Vane sat behind a desk carved from a single slab of obsidian, his hands folded with a stillness that felt predatory.

But to his subordinates, he was a ghost in the machine. He used a technique called "gaslighting by proxy." He would give conflicting instructions to two rising stars, then sit back and watch them destroy each other’s reputations in a desperate bid to please him.

Should we dive deeper into the that allow these individuals to thrive in corporate environments, or

To his CEO, Julian was a visionary. He spoke in the language of "disruption" and "efficiency." He was the first to arrive and the last to leave, projecting an image of tireless dedication.

Six months later, the company’s turnover rate hit 40%. The culture was toxic, fueled by paranoia and fear. But the quarterly profits were up due to Julian’s ruthless cost-cutting.

Julian was a "Snake in a Suit." He didn’t lack emotions; he lacked the ones that made people human. He viewed the corporate world as a high-stakes chessboard where the pieces were made of flesh and bone. The Recruitment