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CHAPTER ONE
THE DAY THAT Jared Stone’se happened to be,unfortunately for Stone, a slos day By 5:00 am on Thursday, when thesexy Silicon Valley billionaire was reputed to be running the trails of SanFrancisco’s Golden Gate Park, as he did everyto the day, his manifesto was dinner conversation in Moscow InLondon, as chicly dressed fes to chase down lunch, his outrageous state of the unionontwenty-first-century woue, spoken in hushed,disbelieving tones on elevator trips down to ground level
And in Ae was about to hit hardest,wo out the C-suite only to findthe that seemed impossible to penetrate staredin disbelief at their smartphones Maybe it was a joke, some saidSomeone must have hacked into Stone’s email, said othersDoesn’t surprise ent, many ofwhom had dated Stone in an elusive quest to pin down the world’s ht-after bachelor He’s a cold bastard I’m only surprised his truestripes didn’t appear sooner
At her desk at 7:00 a in San Jose, Bailey St John was oblivious to the firestorh her own glass ceiling and ar Americano hich to do so, she slid into her chair with asrace as her pencil skirt would allow, harnessed adose of optimismthat today would be different, and flicked on her PC
She stared sleepily at the screen as her co, acrid brew that inevitably kicked her brain intoworking order as she clicked on her irlfriend Aria’s email,titled “OMG,” made her lift a recently plucked and perfected brow
She clicked it open The hot sip of coffee she’d just takenlodged sonites InternationalIncident With His Manifesto on Women, blared the headline of thevariety news site everyone in Silicon Valley frequented LeakedTongue-in-Cheek Manifesto to His Fellow Mates Makes Stone’s Views on Womenin the Boardroom and Bedroom Blatantly Clear
Bailey put down her coffee with a jerky h to the enerated two million views TheTruth About Women, which apparently had never been meant for anyoneother than Jared Stone’s inner circle, was now the salacious entertain as unmistakably herboss’s bold, eloquent tone, she nearly fell off her chair
Having dated and worked with a cross-section of woe where I feel I can make adefinitive opinion on the subject matter, I have come to a conclusionWomen lie
They say they want to be equals in the boardrooed over the past fifty years Despite alltheir pleas to the contrary, despite their outrage at the li puts on the out a deal, and they don’t want to be orchestrating a er Theywant to be ho the lifestyle to whichthey’ve become accustoives theht between the sheets and diamond jewelry at appropriateintervals Who will prevent theh lifewithout a compass…
Drifting aih life without a compass?Bailey’s cheeks flamed If there was any way in which her life couldn’t bedescribed, it was that She’d spent the last twelve years putting aslow-inco an MBA before working herself up the corporate ladderFirst at a smaller Silicon Valley start-up, then for the last three years atJared Stone’s industry darling of a consumer electronics company
And that here her rapid progression had stopped Asdirector of North Ahteena vice president position Stone seeive her She’d worked harder and ues, and it was generally acknowledged the VP job should have been hersExcept Jared Stone didn’t seeiven the job to so froenius of Silicon Valley
Why didn’t he respect her as everyone else did?