The irony was so precise I almost thought I'd misheard it.
Daniel looked from father to father.
“These aren't random adult children who happened to wander into the restaurant. Both represent your organizations.”
Thomas exhaled.
“One terrible evening does not define institutional culture.”
“No,” Daniel said. “But what leadership excuses can.”
That line changed the room.
The lawyers began looking at their folders instead of one another.
Richard sat back.
“I am not excusing it.”
“What were you planning to do before you found out Grace was my wife?”
Richard didn't answer.
Daniel looked toward Martin, who had been invited into the room and stood silently near the door.
“Mr. Hale?”
Martin swallowed.
“Yes?”
“When Mr. Mercer arrived, had you already told him what happened?”
“No.”
“Were you planning to?”
Martin looked miserable.
“I don't know.”
“Why not?”
“Because I was afraid the restaurant would lose their business.”
Daniel nodded.
Then he looked at Richard.
“There is your answer.”
Richard's face hardened, but not at Daniel.
At the situation.
At himself, maybe.
At the fact that his name could frighten decent people into silence.
I realized something then.
Power didn't only reveal character in the person who possessed it.
It distorted the behavior of everyone around them.
A powerful person's carelessness could become another person's fear.
Daniel looked at me.
“What do you want?”
Every eye returned to me.
I hated the question at first.
Because suddenly I felt responsible for what happened next.
If I said cancel the deal, thousands of people might be affected.
If I said forget it, then nothing mattered.
I thought of the twenty-dollar bill in the Coke.
I thought of Mia wrapping a towel around my shoulders.
Martin admitting he had been afraid.