A murmur traveled along the table. Richard's expression tightened, but he kept his voice controlled. "Ms. Reed, please take your seat."
Vanessa looked astonished to hear her superior address her that way. "Richard, this is ridiculous. Are we allowing anyone off the street into executive meetings now?"
"I was invited," Ethan said, remaining beside the chair Daniel had pulled out for him.
"By whom?" Vanessa demanded.
"You'll find out soon enough," Ethan replied. He placed his folder on the table and waited without opening it. Richard indicated the empty chair and said, "We will continue the review, and I expect every person in this room to conduct themselves professionally. That includes the way we speak to invited guests."
Vanessa sat with visible reluctance, her cheeks flushed. She was accustomed to intimidating junior employees through tone and timing, and the fact that Richard had contradicted her in front of the board felt like an insult she would need to repair later. She glanced toward Olivia, who sat perfectly still near the wall. The idea that Olivia might witness her discomfort bothered Vanessa more than the possible inconvenience of having Ethan in the room.
"You were discussing whether appearances influence customer value," Ethan said, looking toward the screen. "May I ask a few questions?" Richard nodded, and Vanessa gave a brittle smile that invited him to demonstrate how little he understood about her business. He began with the segmentation report, asking why the campaign had excluded certain customers from premium-service invitations when their account histories showed substantial purchasing activity. Vanessa replied that marketing decisions had to be made at scale and could not accommodate every individual exception.
"Consider a customer driving an old pickup truck," Ethan continued. "Suppose that customer has enough money to buy every vehicle in one of your showrooms. Would your staff treat that person differently after seeing the truck?" Vanessa's eyes narrowed because she recognized the direction of the question. "If he could afford a better vehicle, I'd suggest he buy one," she said. "Image is a choice, and business is full of choices."
"What if the truck has sentimental value?" Ethan asked. "What if it belonged to the customer's father, who spent his life repairing other people's cars?" Vanessa gave a dismissive shrug. "We're not a charity for people who cannot let go of the past. A successful businessman should understand that looking poor can damage other people's confidence in him."
Helen Wu lowered her pen. Olivia felt the room growing more uncomfortable with every answer, but Vanessa was already too committed to her argument to notice. Ethan asked what happened when a customer refused to be judged by a vehicle, and Vanessa said that the customer was free to shop elsewhere. "There are plenty of dealerships," she added. "We don't have to make ourselves appealing to everyone."
"And what about employees?" Ethan asked. "Does the same logic apply to the person driving a customer's car into the service bay, or the receptionist whose shoes don't cost much?"