"Find her," Amelia said. "Not to pressure her. Ask outside counsel to invite her for an interview. She must be told participation is voluntary and protected from retaliation."
Morrison nodded.
Webb looked sick.
"I wasn't trying to retaliate," he said.
"Intent matters," Amelia replied. "So does effect."
He looked at her for a long moment.
"What happens to me now?"
It was not an executive question. It was the question of a frightened twenty-eight-year-old who had discovered that one afternoon could expose the moral habits beneath his professional confidence.
Amelia did not rescue him from it.
"You participate honestly in the investigation," she said. "Then other people, not me, decide whether your conduct is compatible with this institution. After that, whatever happens to your career will depend partly on what you learn and partly on whether anyone is willing to trust you with responsibility again."
"Are you going to sue me?"
She almost laughed at the narrowness of the question.
"No."
His shoulders loosened a fraction.
"Don't mistake that for absolution," she said. "I don't need damages from you. What I need is a bank where the next woman you misjudge does not need to own sixty-seven percent of the institution to be believed."
The sentence stayed with everyone in the room.
At five o'clock, Metropolitan Trust released its first statement.
It did not call the event a misunderstanding.
It did not say the video lacked context.
It did not praise the bank's longstanding commitment to diversity before acknowledging what had happened.
The statement said an incident at the downtown branch raised serious concerns about unequal treatment and inappropriate escalation. It confirmed an independent review, the removal of the branch manager from duty pending investigation, and a forthcoming public plan for corrective action. It also stated that Amelia herself had requested the review be handled through ordinary employment procedures rather than personal executive authority.
Communications chief Sarah Kim read the final draft twice before releasing it.
"Most corporations would kill for wording this direct during a crisis," she said.
Amelia looked at her. "Most corporations spend the first six hours pretending the crisis is a vocabulary problem."
At 5:12, the statement went public.
The reaction was immediate.
Some praised the bank. Others said it was damage control. Some argued Webb should be fired instantly. Others accused Amelia of staging the entire event. Several commentators claimed she had deliberately entered the branch without identifying herself to trap an inexperienced manager.
Amelia read that accusation on a television screen in the executive lounge.
"There it is," Williams said beside her.
"What?"
"The part where people make the discrimination victim responsible for preventing the discriminator's behavior."
Amelia switched off the screen.
"He could have prevented it by being decent."
"Exactly."
The outside review began that evening.
By Wednesday morning, investigators had interviewed Rodriguez, Lisa Chen, three tellers, two customer-service representatives, Jasmine Price, and four customers who had previously complained about Webb. The pattern that emerged was more serious than one encounter but less dramatic than internet speculation suggested.
Webb had not been running some explicit discriminatory policy. He had not instructed employees to deny Black customers service. What he had done was exercise discretion unevenly.
Customers he perceived as affluent were given explanations and second chances. Customers he perceived as poor were given rules. White customers who became frustrated were described in internal notes as upset or confused. Black customers displaying similar frustration were more often described as aggressive. Security had been summoned eleven times during Webb's three months as manager. Eight of those incidents involved Black or Latino customers.