Then Caleb looked toward the executive tables.
“I also want to thank the people who’ve taught me what ambition looks like,” he said.
“At Nebula, I’ve learned that you have to earn your seat at the table.”
My stomach tightened.
Maybe nobody else caught the phrase.
I did.
Caleb looked directly at me.
Just for a second.
Then he smiled at the room.
“Some people wait for opportunities.
Others create them.”
Silas stopped moving his fork.
I felt something inside me go cold.
Caleb wasn’t backing down.
He was turning the evening into another competition.
After the applause, he handed off the microphone and immediately made his way toward Silas.
I couldn’t hear the first part of their conversation.
But I saw Caleb point subtly toward me.
Silas’s expression changed.
Then both men looked toward Table Nineteen.
A minute later, Silas approached me again.
This time he didn’t sit.
“Can we speak somewhere quieter?” he asked.
Caleb followed behind him.
“I think I should be part of this,” my brother said.
Silas looked at him.
“Why?”
Caleb hesitated.
“Because apparently there’s been some confusion.”
“There hasn’t been any confusion on my end.”
We moved into a small lounge outside the ballroom.
The music became muffled behind the doors.
Silas set the black folder on a side table.
Then he looked at me.
“Your brother tells me you may have represented the scope of your work with us inaccurately.”
I stared at Caleb.
He had actually done it.
Backed into a corner, he had tried to make my professional relationship look suspicious.
“What exactly did he say?” I asked.
Caleb jumped in.
“I said I was surprised.
That’s all.
You’ve never mentioned any formal role at Nebula, and confidentiality around executive work is important.”
Silas’s face became unreadable.
“It is.”
Caleb seemed encouraged.
“Exactly.
So naturally I wondered whether there might be a misunderstanding about how involved Lena really is.”
Silas opened the folder.
Caleb stopped talking.
Inside were printed notes for the project Silas had mentioned earlier.
Most of the pages were intentionally sparse because the sensitive material lived in secure systems, but one page carried the outline we had been revising.
Silas turned it toward me.
“I wanted your reaction to the third section.”
I read the first few lines.
“The argument arrives too early,” I said.
