“Independent committee.”
“Outside counsel.”
“HR not connected to the old case.”
“And you?”
“Witness.”
The president nodded.
Then:
“You could fire her today for the Seat 1A incident.”
“Yes.”
“Why not?”
“Because I want the truth more than I want speed.”
That became the rule.
The seating incident was easy.
The lead attendant had violated procedure.
No reservation verification.
Unnecessary escalation.
False description of passenger conduct.
Inappropriate security intervention.
Throwing boarding pass.
Interfering with access to identification.
Those facts were supported by gate data, officers, passenger statements, and cabin recordings.
Discipline would follow.
But the watch was different.
The watch could rewrite twelve years.
The independent investigation went deeper.
Personnel records from the old airline system had been migrated twice.
Some missing.
Most recoverable.
The chairwoman’s old termination file contained the statement from the blonde attendant.
Detailed.
Too detailed.
She claimed she saw the young employee near the wealthy passenger’s jacket pocket during meal service.
But crew-position records showed the blonde attendant herself had been assigned to that section during the relevant interval.
The young Black employee had been working the opposite aisle.
No one had noticed the inconsistency.
Or no one had cared.
The old investigator’s notes included another name.
The chairwoman’s closest friend at the time.
The colleague who had comforted her afterward.
The one who told her:
“I believe you.”
The friend had been interviewed quietly during the original investigation.
Her statement said she could not confirm where the chairwoman had been for approximately nine minutes.
The chairwoman stared at the document.
“What?”
Outside counsel looked toward her.
“You didn’t know?”
“No.”
“She told investigators that?”
“Yes.”
The chairwoman’s stomach tightened.
“Why wasn’t I shown this?”
“The old process was internal.”
“You received only the final summary.”
She read again.
Unable to corroborate employee location during relevant period.
That did not prove betrayal.
Maybe the friend genuinely did not know.
But another document sat beneath it.
A handwritten note from an investigator.
Friend appears nervous when asked whether senior attendant entered galley storage area. Declines speculation.
The chairwoman read it twice.
Then three times.
The watch was not the only secret.
She called the former friend.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
She left one message.
“Please call me.”
Six hours later, the phone rang.
The chairwoman stood alone in her home office.
She answered.
Silence.
Then the friend’s voice.
Older.
Shaking.
“I saw the news.”
The chairwoman closed her eyes.
“Did you know?”
Silence.
The question did not need explanation.
The friend began crying.
The chairwoman’s hand tightened around the phone.