Ethan looked at her hand on his sleeve, then at Mara’s face. He finally saw the pattern: praise when he obeyed, pressure when he hesitated, and Mara erased in every version of the story. He pulled his arm away. “Stop,” he said quietly. “Just… stop, Sloane.”
When they returned to the event, Ethan did not try to laugh it off again. He told the acquirer’s team the signing was paused. He asked counsel to review Mara’s documentation properly. Then he said something Mara had not expected to hear in public: “She built the core. We will need to fix the record.”