Mr. Patel tried to interrupt, but the acquirer’s team did not look at him the same way anymore. They looked at him like a risk. Mara did not need to raise her voice. The room had already heard the only thing that mattered: the product could not be trusted without her.
Ethan stared at Sloane now, not at Mara. Something shifted in his face as he finally understood how deep the erasure went. He had told himself he was “protecting the company,” and Sloane had encouraged that story, step by step, until it turned into stealing from his own sister.