He wrote about you. Malcolm waited. He wrote that you were the most expensive mechanic he'd ever almost used. Wrong, she said. And the most valuable one he'd ever listened to.
She paused again. He also wrote that if a man won't bend on safety, don't try to bend him. Just get out of the way. Malcolm looked at the wall for a moment. I didn't work for your father again after that second job.
He said, I thought he was angry. I wasn't angry, Victoria said. He was embarrassed. There's a difference. She looked at her hands.
I'm familiar with the feeling. Something in that admission cost her. He could see it. And he didn't make it easier for her and he didn't make it harder. He just let it sit.
Ms. Sterling, he said after a moment. Why did you offer me $45,000? She looked up. Not as a negotiating position, he said.
Not as a legal strategy. I want to know what you actually thought when you looked at that invoice, what you actually believed. She was quiet for long enough that he thought she might deflect, but she didn't. I thought you were taking advantage of the situation, she said. I thought that you'd been given access to a very expensive aircraft, that you'd been given a contract with some flexibility and scope, and that when you saw the final number, you decided to push it as high as you could because you needed money and I could.
Absorb the loss. She paused. I thought you were doing what I assumed someone in your position would do. Someone in my position, Malcolm said. She didn't look away.
Yes. What position is that? She held his gaze. A struggling business owner who needed this contract to survive, she said. And I thought that meant she stopped that I would compromise.
He said, "Yes, because I needed the money." "Yes." He nodded slowly. Not in forgiveness, not in acceptance, just acknowledgment that they were finally saying the real thing. Ms. Sterling, he said. In my experience, the people who compromise on safety are the ones who have too much to lose, not the ones who have too little.
He let that land. I've got a daughter and a shop and a reputation built over 19 years. You couldn't have paid me enough to put those things at risk. But you also couldn't have threatened me enough. Because the moment I compromise, once the moment I sign something I know isn't right, everything I've built means nothing.