Once airborne, Victoria purchased access to the cabin internet and opened her email.
There was a message from the hotel group’s director, Malcolm.
“Sorry to hear you won’t be able to join us. We appreciate you sending Ethan and Sloane to move the discussion forward.”
Victoria stared at the screen.
The message had arrived while she was speaking to her project manager at the airport.
Below it was an earlier email from Ethan.
“Victoria has had a personal issue arise and will not be attending. Sloane has been closely involved in developing the concept and can represent the creative direction alongside me.”
Victoria read the sentence slowly.
Sloane had never worked on the concept.
Not once.
Victoria’s team had spent months developing it. Her project manager, Priya, had coordinated site information, materials, and costs.
Ethan had seen the presentation only because Victoria showed it to him at home.
She opened the attachment he had sent.
Her drawings appeared beneath a new cover page.
The name of her practice was gone.
A proposed partnership name appeared instead.
Ethan’s name.
Sloane’s name.
Victoria sat back.
For a moment, the humiliation in the cabin became secondary.
He had not simply brought another woman.
He had planned to walk into her meeting with her work and explain her absence as something she had chosen.
She wrote to Malcolm.
“I am on the scheduled flight and will attend tomorrow’s meeting. I did not authorize the change described below. Please retain the presentation my office sent directly last week as the current version.”
She kept it brief.
Then she contacted Priya.
“Something serious has happened. Please secure our project files and check what access Ethan has.”
Priya replied almost immediately.
“He has the guest link you asked us to send. I’ll revoke it and review the activity.”
Victoria pressed her fingertips against the edge of the tray table.
For the first time since boarding, she felt something other than shock.
A direction.
