Sloane approached after the meal service.
She stopped beside Victoria’s row.
“Could we speak?”
Victoria looked at the passenger beside her.
The woman stood.
“I was about to stretch my legs.”
Victoria thanked her.
Sloane sat carefully.
Without Ethan beside her, she looked younger and much less certain.
“He said you knew.”
“About which part?”
Sloane looked down.
“That your marriage was ending.”
Victoria felt her throat tighten.
“We had not discussed ending it.”
“He told me you were living separate lives.”
Victoria waited.
“He said this trip was supposed to formalize the business arrangement.”
“What business arrangement?”
Sloane hesitated.
“The new venture.”
Victoria took out her phone and showed her the revised presentation.
“Did you develop this?”
“No.”
“Did you agree to let him say you did?”
“He said your firm was part of the partnership.”
“It isn’t.”
Sloane stared at the screen.
Victoria watched her expression change.
There was discomfort.
Then recognition.
Then fear.
“I wrote some introductory language,” Sloane said. “That’s all.”
“You need to tell Malcolm exactly that.”
Sloane nodded.
Victoria put the phone away.
“And the coat?”
“He gave it to me in the lounge. I was cold.”
There was a long pause.
“I’m sorry.”
Victoria looked toward the front of the aircraft.
“Are you involved with him?”
Sloane’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
The answer hurt.
But Victoria preferred it to another clever phrase.
She turned back.
“I don’t want you explaining my marriage to me. I want you correcting what you said about my work.”
“I will.”
The passenger returned a few minutes later.
Sloane stood.
Victoria did not forgive her.
She did not need to decide anything about her yet.
There was still an ocean beneath them and a meeting she intended to attend.
