"Miss Cole," the receptionist said from the corridor, "is there anything else you need?" "No, thank you, Lena," Adrienne replied. "We'll be fine."
The receptionist withdrew and the door closed gently behind her. Margot was still standing, one hand resting against the back of her chair. Across the table, Eleanor's expression changed as understanding arrived; she remembered Margot's description of the woman on the plane, and the pieces came together almost visibly. David remained beside Adrienne, watching Margot without the satisfaction of a man who had been waiting to spring a trap.
"You," Margot said. Then she swallowed. "You were on my flight." "I was," Adrienne replied. "Seat 2A. The one I paid for."
"But how—" Margot glanced at the board members, then back at the woman in the doorway. "You're Adrienne Cole?" "Yes. We've exchanged letters through counsel for months. I'm the chair of this investment committee."
The room went quiet. Margot's eyes moved to the documents on the table, the folders bearing Cole Meridian Capital's name and the printed amount she had been waiting to sign. In the space of a few seconds, the flight ceased to be an unpleasant anecdote and became a memory with consequences too large for her to understand. She opened her mouth, then closed it again.
Adrienne moved to the head of the table. She did not raise her voice, throw down a file, or demand that anyone stand. She placed her canvas bag beside the chair, took out the boarding pass she had kept from the morning, and laid it on the table face up. Then she sat down and invited everyone else to do the same.
"Ms. Whitfield," she said, "we have an important conversation to finish. I think it should begin with what happened on the aircraft." Margot remained standing a moment longer. "You were following me?"
"I traveled on the same flight. I had a legitimate ticket, booked under my own name, and I made no contact with you until you spoke to me. I moved our signing to Denver because I wanted to observe how you behaved outside the prepared setting of an executive meeting. I expected to learn something small, perhaps nothing at all."
"You set me up," Margot said, her voice rising. "This was a test." "A test doesn't make someone order another passenger out of a purchased seat. You made that decision without knowing who I was. I did not ask you to confront me, and I did not ask the flight attendant to remove me."
Margot looked toward David. "You knew? You were part of this?"
David shook his head. "I knew Adrienne planned to travel on the same flight. I did not know you would confront her, and I certainly did not know the airline would remove her. No one in this building arranged your behavior."
The words left Margot with nothing useful to argue against. She pulled out her chair and sat, but the movement seemed involuntary, as though her legs had decided before her mind did. Eleanor remained upright beside her, holding a pen with both hands. Around the table, the other committee members waited, understanding that the last few months of financial work had brought them to a moment none of the projections had anticipated.
"I would never have spoken to you that way if I'd known who you were," Margot said at last. Adrienne held her gaze. "That's what concerns me." Margot blinked. "I'm trying to apologize."
"No. You're explaining that you would have been polite if you'd known I was important to you. That isn't the same thing as being sorry for the way you treated a stranger." "I was tired. The flight was early, and I had a major meeting. There was confusion over the seating."