A sudden, heavy silence fell over the line.

“What did you say?” Alan asked, his voice dropping into a hard, disbelieving tone.

“My daughter is sick, Alan.

I’m staying home, and the team will handle the slides without me.”

“Ethan, this is our main division pitch of the whole quarter,” Alan Vance said.

“We’ve spent three months preparing these product numbers.

You don’t hand off a major launch an hour before the call.”

“Marcus worked on every single slide with me yesterday afternoon,” Ethan said, keeping his voice quiet and even.