“Yes.”
Denise looked at Elena.
“Can I laugh?”
Elena nodded.
“I already did.”
Adrian stared at both.
Denise laughed.
Not cruelly.
Long enough that she had to wipe her eyes.
Then she became serious.
“Were you hurt?”
“No.”
“Coffee not too hot?”
“No.”
“Good.”
She sat.
“Now tell me real problem.”
Adrian told everything.
The seat.
Vivian.
Meredith.
ER-9.
Calvin.
Nia.
The data.
Denise listened without interrupting.
When he finished, she said:
“You're angry at the woman.”
“Yes.”
“The flight attendant.”
“Yes.”
“The executive who built system.”
“Yes.”
“Yourself.”
Adrian looked at her.
“How did you know?”
“Because you're my son.”
She sipped tea.
“What part is yours?”
“I approved targets that may have created pressure.”
“Did you tell them to lie?”
“No.”
“Did you tell them rich people get seats?”
“No.”
“Then don't become center of every wrong thing just because you're chairman.”
Adrian stared.
She continued:
“But don't use that as excuse either.”
“There it is.”
Denise smiled.
“Of course.”
“Your job is figure out what part belongs to you.”
“Fix that.”
“Then make the people responsible fix theirs.”
Elena leaned back.
“I should put you on board.”
Denise shook her head.
“Absolutely not.”
Adrian smiled.
Then his mother looked at him seriously.
“You know what bothered me most in video?”
“What?”
“Not coffee.”
“Not woman.”
“The way everybody changed when captain said chairman.”
Adrian's smile disappeared.
Denise continued:
“Before that, they were watching you be humiliated.”
“After that, everybody looked ashamed.”
“What changed?”
“They learned I had power.”
“Exactly.”
She leaned forward.
“So don't make lesson ‘don't mistreat chairman in hoodie.’”
“That helps nobody.”
Adrian nodded slowly.
She continued:
“Fix what happens to the man nobody recognizes.”
The words landed.
Calvin Pierce.
The grandmother in 1A.
Forty-one complaints that never reached him.
Adrian looked at Elena.
“That's the standard.”
She nodded.
“I know.”
Denise smiled.
“I accept consulting fees in cash.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Ungrateful.”
His phone rang.
Mason Caldwell.
Again.
Adrian looked at screen.
Denise said:
“Take it.”
He answered.