Grant did not react at all. Captain Reese simply handed the ground staff a signed confirmation of aircraft ownership, and the security detail retreated at once without further explanation needed. Still unaware of the full scope of what he was facing, Conrad continued to believe Grant was little more than a charter pilot's employer who happened to be along for the ride. Inside the hotel hosting the investment conference, he ordered Sloan to proceed with the presentation exactly as rehearsed, as though nothing on the flight had ever happened. He announced to a room full of shareholders that Holloway Meridian had all but agreed to commit $400 million presenting the deal as a formality rather than the uncertainty it actually was.
Sloan glanced toward the back of the room where Grant sat quietly among the crowd, and for the first time in her career, she understood exactly how it felt to be used by someone powerful and then discarded the moment convenience demanded it. While publicly praising her contributions, Conrad had already sent instructions to legal counsel preparing her termination the moment the funds cleared, a message Dana had already intercepted and secured. Grant offered Sloan no instructions about what to do next. He simply let her choose alone between finishing the lie for a few more hours of borrowed comfort or telling the truth and accepting whatever followed. She began the presentation exactly as written, walking through growth projections, margin improvements, and the language of restructuring she had rehearsed for months.
When she reached the section detailing workforce reductions, her voice caught and she stopped entirely. Rather than reciting the falsified numbers one final time, Sloan admitted in front of the entire room that the figures behind her had been deliberately manipulated. Conrad interrupted immediately suggesting loudly that the stress of an old divorce had finally caught up with her and ordered her microphone cut before she could say another word. Grant rose from his seat and walked toward the stage without hesitation. Conrad turned toward him with contempt, asking what right a man who merely owned a private aircraft believed he had to interrupt a shareholder meeting of this magnitude.