Preston broke the silence. "So, Camille," he said her name the way someone says a word in a language they find amusing—slow, overpronounced, like a joke only he understood. "What exactly does a senior analyst do at a company like this? File papers, make copies, fetch coffee for the real executives?"
"I lead financial modeling for acquisition targets. Due diligence, valuation frameworks, risk assessment."
Preston blinked. Then he laughed—loud, sharp, performative. He slapped the table hard enough to rattle the silverware.
"Did you hear that, Sloan? Valuation frameworks?" He wiped his eye. "Where did they find you? Some community college job fair? A bus stop?"
"Columbia MBA. Top of my class."
The laughter stopped. Preston's jaw tightened for half a second. Then the grin came back, wider and meaner than before.
"Columbia," he said. "Right. Let me guess: scholarship, affirmative action, some foundation that needed a brochure face to hit their numbers."
Camille looked him in the eye. "Merit."
That word landed like a stone in still water. Walter Reeves shifted in his seat. His wife touched his arm under the table. Thomas Caldwell stared at a point somewhere above Camille's head. No one spoke. No one defended her. The silence was its own kind of violence.
Preston didn't like the silence. He didn't like that Camille hadn't flinched. He didn't like that a Black woman had just said "merit" to his face without blinking. It offended something deep inside him, something he had never been forced to examine.
He leaned forward. His bourbon breath hit Camille's face. "You know what I think? I think someone put you at this table as a joke. A little social experiment. Let's see how the diversity hire handles the big kids' table. And honestly, you're failing."
Sloan pulled out her phone. She angled it toward Camille—not recording yet, but making sure Camille could see the camera: a warning, a threat, a prop in a game that was just getting started.
"Preston," Sloan said, her voice dripping with amusement. "I just had the most wonderful idea."
"I'm listening."