“That was a question.”
He looked toward the manager again.
Then answered:
“I think I was.”
The billionaire turned.
“Were you firing him?”
The manager hesitated.
“He challenged me in front of a client.”
“Was he disrespectful?”
“He undermined authority.”
“By saying what?”
The manager said nothing.
The junior associate answered.
“I said maybe we should wait until the person she was expecting arrived.”
The billionaire looked toward the manager.
“And that required termination?”
“I was angry.”
Again.
Honesty.
The billionaire nodded.
“Then anger appears to influence customer decisions and employee discipline.”
The manager’s cheeks reddened.
“That is unfair.”
“Possibly.”
The woman turned toward the attorney.
“Which is why we investigate.”
The manager looked surprised.
“You’re not firing me?”
“No.”
Relief flashed.
Too soon.
The billionaire continued.
“You are suspended from customer-facing duties effective immediately.”
The manager’s face dropped.
“Suspended?”
“Paid.”
“For how long?”
“Until the review tells me enough.”
“You cannot do this because of one interaction.”
The billionaire looked toward her.
“I am not doing it because of one interaction.”
“Then what?”
The attorney removed another folder.
Not the acquisition agreement.
A thinner file.
The manager’s attention locked onto it.
The billionaire took it.
“I received part of the customer-complaint history during diligence.”
The manager’s face changed again.
The director looked uneasy.
The billionaire continued.
“Not enough to draw conclusions.”
“Enough to ask questions.”
She opened the folder.
“Three complaints about differential access.”
“Two complaints about unnecessary proof-of-funds requests.”
“One complaint from a customer who claimed a manager told him to ‘start with something more realistic’ before asking his budget.”
The manager spoke quickly.
“I remember that case.”
“Good.”
“He was nineteen.”
“And?”
“He came in wearing sweatpants.”
The manager stopped.
She had answered too honestly.
The billionaire stared.
The junior associate looked down again.
The manager tried to recover.
“He was disruptive.”
The billionaire looked at the report.
“It says he purchased a vehicle from another dealer six weeks later.”
The manager’s face tightened.
“One sale does not prove—”
“No.”
The woman closed the file.
“It proves nothing by itself.”
Then she looked around.
“But repeated discretionary decisions deserve examination.”
The director stepped forward.
“I should have surfaced the complaints more clearly during diligence.”
The billionaire looked at him.
“Yes.”
He accepted it.
No excuses.
The manager turned toward him.
“You knew?”
He sighed.