The cabin had gone almost completely silent.
Rebecca frowned.
"Who are you?"
Naomi did not answer yet.
"Were you aware my son told you where he was going?"
"He was trying to enter business class."
"That was not my question."
Rebecca looked around.
"He said something about his mother."
"He told you his mother was in 3A."
"I had no way to verify that."
"You could have asked his name. You could have called forward. You could have asked another crew member. You could have walked him five rows toward the curtain and looked. Instead, you decided an eight-year-old child was lying because the truth did not match the assumptions you had already made about him."
"That's not what happened."
"Then tell me what happened."
Rebecca's mouth opened.
No answer came quickly enough.
Naomi looked at Marcus.
"Please pick up his book."
Marcus was already holding it.
"I have it."
Their eyes met.
Recognition flickered across his face.
He had seen Naomi in leadership videos.
His expression went from concern to shock.
"Dr. Richardson?"
Rebecca turned toward him.
"What?"
Marcus swallowed.
"Dr. Naomi Richardson."
He looked at Rebecca directly.
"She's the Chief Operating Officer."
For the first time since the confrontation began, Rebecca said nothing.
The change in Rebecca's face was immediate, but Naomi had seen that expression before in boardrooms, hotel lobbies, restaurants, and airport lounges. It was not remorse. It was recalculation.
"You're the COO?"
"Yes."
"I didn't know."
Naomi let the sentence sit between them.
"That is not a defense."
Rebecca's mouth tightened.
"I mean, if I'd known who you were, obviously I would have handled the situation differently."
Several passengers reacted at once. A woman near row fifteen muttered, "Wow." The South Asian passenger shook his head slowly.
Naomi did not raise her voice.
"That's exactly the problem."
Rebecca looked confused.
"You believe respect should depend on who someone's mother is."
"No, that's not what I meant."
"Then what did you mean?"
Rebecca glanced at the phones pointed toward her.
"I was enforcing cabin rules."