"You were assaulted."
"I know."
"You have a baby."
"Also aware."
"Kesha."
"Marcus."
He closed his eyes. Lydia Crane, still in the boardroom, tried not to smile.
"What do you want?" Marcus asked.
"A hotel room, food, two hours where nobody points a camera at my child, and a seat on another scheduled flight when we're ready."
"On Skylink?"
Kesha considered that.
"Yes."
Marcus looked surprised.
"You sure?"
"If I won't fly your airline after this, why should anyone else?"
That answer became another sentence people quoted later. Flight 847 did not depart that morning. Skylink replaced the entire working crew because Williams and Sandra were removed from duty and because the remaining attendants had to give statements. By the time a replacement crew arrived, the aircraft had missed its slot and operational complications pushed departure into the afternoon. Passengers were rebooked, given meal credits, and offered alternate flights.
Some blamed Kesha anyway.
One passenger posted that the incident had "destroyed an entire travel day over feelings."
The post disappeared when another passenger replied with the video of the slap. At 2:00 p.m., while Kesha sat in an airport hotel room with Zoe asleep beside her, the merger board meeting began without her. Marcus joined by video from New York. The Meridian transaction was supposed to be the biggest announcement of his career.
Instead, the first board discussion concerned passenger dignity, crew conduct, and whether Skylink had a deeper problem it had been paying not to see. David Park presented the first complaint search at 2:37. Seventeen formal allegations over five years involved discrimination, biased treatment, or disparate enforcement by cabin crew. Most had been resolved through ordinary customer-service remedies.
Five resulted in confidential settlements. Three involved Sandra Mitchell. Seven involved flights under Captain Derek Williams's command, though not necessarily misconduct by Williams personally. Marcus stared at the screen.
"How many did I know about?"
David answered honestly.
"None individually. They were below executive escalation thresholds."
"Who set the thresholds?"
"Risk and customer relations, over time."
"Meaning us."
"Meaning the company."
Marcus looked toward Lydia.
"Pull all seventeen. Full files. No summaries."
She nodded. One board member, Henry Shaw, objected.
"We need to be careful about allowing a viral incident involving your family to distort governance."
Marcus turned toward him.
"Agreed."
Henry seemed surprised. Marcus continued.
"Which is why the review will be independent. Outside investigator. Outside employment counsel. The same standard whether the passenger was Kesha Thompson or someone with no connection to this company."
Another director asked the obvious question.