Derek mentioned it like he had been waiting for the chance. "Were you responsible? " Mara asked before Victoria could. Caleb glanced at her then at Victoria. He did not look offended. Maybe he had been asked that question too many times to still bleed from it.
No, but your license was revoked. Yes. Why Caleb wiped his hand on a rag, though the oil only spread darker across his skin? Because I signed the first safety flag. That made me the easiest name to attach to the failure.
Victoria frowned. Start from the beginning. Caleb looked toward the cockpit, then at the clock on Mara's tablet. We don't have time for my biography. I'm asking because the man trying to take my company is using your past as a weapon.
If I'm going to stand beside you, I need to know what he's holding. Something shifted in Caleb's expression, a guarded disbelief so quiet it hurt to witness. No one with Victoria's kind of power had ever said those words to him before. Stand beside you. He looked down at the rag in his hands.
"6 years ago, I worked maintenance validation for a charter fleet in Nevada. One night, I found a mismatch in a backup flight control relay. It looked like a factory defect, but the replacement logs didn't match. I reported it grounded the aircraft and refused to clear it. " "That sounds like doing your job," Victoria said. It was until the client threatened to pull a contract worth more than my entire department.
The next morning, the report I filed was gone. The faulty relay was listed as inspected under my signature. Two supervisors said I cleared it. The company settled quietly. I lost my certification, and the official story became that I cut corners.
Mara's voice softened despite herself. Why didn't you fight it? Caleb gave a small, humorless laugh. With what? I had a sick wife, a baby, and bills that arrived faster than truth.
Lawyers wanted retainers. Investigators wanted time. Laura needed medicine. He stopped on his wife's name. The hangar seemed to soften around it.
She told me not to let them make me bitter. She said Ethan would need a father more than I needed revenge. Victoria looked at his cracked phone on the cart at the sleeping child in the photo, the blue toy airplane tucked beside him. She thought of the sentence that had insulted her minutes ago. My six-year-old son needs a mother.
Now it no longer sounded like a demand. It sounded like the last honest thing a man had left after the world took everything practical from him. And after she died, Victoria asked quietly. Caleb's eyes lowered. After she died, bitterness became easier.
I just tried not to let Ethan see it. Another alert flashed across Mara's tablet. Her face tightened. Board meeting link just opened early. Derek is already online with five directors.