Leonard Whitmore paced near the glass wall, phone pressed to his ear, his voice tight but carefully measured. "No, I don't care if it's standard protocol," he said. "I have a schedule."
Naomi watched from the table. She wasn't watching him anymore. She was watching how he unraveled. Men like Leonard didn't panic when things went wrong. They looked for someone to blame, someone smaller, someone safe.
When he ended the call, he exhaled sharply and turned back toward the group. His eyes landed on Naomi, not accidentally. "So," he said, clapping his hands once. "Since we're stuck here, let's clear something up."
Naomi didn't move.
Leonard leaned against the table, crossing his arms. "You're asking a lot of questions for someone who still hasn't explained their role."
A few executives shifted in their seats. One checked his phone again. Another stared at the floor.
Naomi nodded. "I told you. I'm observing."
Leonard scoffed. "Observing what? You haven't contributed anything."
There it was. That familiar move. Diminish first, dismiss second. Naomi kept her voice steady. "I asked about preparation, about leadership, about respect."
Leonard shook his head. "That's not contribution. That's commentary." He glanced at the others. "You see what I mean? Everyone wants a seat at the table, but no one wants to earn it."
No one corrected him. Naomi felt the weight of that silence press down on her shoulders. The same silence she'd felt in conference rooms in Dallas, in Chicago, in Silicon Valley. Silence that said, *We see it. We just don't want it to be our problem.*
Leonard continued, more comfortable now. "I've built companies from the ground up. I've signed checks bigger than this terminal. So forgive me if I don't take lectures from—" He stopped himself, choosing a different word. "—observers."
Naomi noticed how carefully he avoided finishing that sentence. She leaned forward slightly. "You don't take lectures from people you don't perceive as equal."
Leonard laughed, sharp and humorless. "Equality isn't how business works."
Naomi nodded. "No. Power is."
That seemed to irritate him more. One of the executives finally spoke up. "Leonard, maybe we should move on."
Leonard shot him a look. "Why? Because this is uncomfortable?" He turned back to Naomi. "Let me ask you something. If you weren't sitting here right now, would anything about this deal change?"
Naomi paused. This was one of those moments, the kind that didn't look dramatic from the outside, but decided everything underneath. She could feel the room leaning in even if no one moved. "I don't know," she said honestly.
"That depends," Leonard raised an eyebrow. "On what?"