I said yes. Not because of the war — though that was appealing, in the specific way that things are appealing when you are furious and capable and have nothing left to lose. I said yes because Ryder Cole's company, Apex Media, was everything Luminos wanted to be and couldn't quite reach. And because the job was real and the salary he named was a number that made me understand, for the first time, what I had been worth all along.

I started on Monday. My office had a view of the city and a whiteboard and a team of eight who looked at me with the cautious assessment of people who had been through several Heads of Strategy and were not yet convinced I would last.

I lasted. I was very good at this. I had spent four years learning the industry at Luminos, and I had learned it well enough to see every gap, every inefficiency, every opportunity that Derek had been too cautious or too comfortable to pursue.

Ryder and I worked well together in the way that two people work well together when they are both very good at what they do and neither of them has any patience for anything less than excellent. He was demanding and precise and he did not soften feedback. I gave it back the same way. He seemed to appreciate that.

He was also, I noticed, careful with me in a way he wasn't careful with anyone else. Not soft — careful. He made sure I had what I needed. He backed my decisions in front of the board. He never undermined me.