Murmurs of disgust swept the room.

I watched the board read, and I understood that this was the moment the room turned for good — not when I spoke, not when Conrad blustered, but here, in the quiet rustle of nine people reading numbers.

Because a board can forgive a great deal.

Boards are pragmatic bodies; they will look past an affair, a temper, a bad quarter, if the executive is making them money.

What a board cannot forgive, cannot survive being seen to forgive, is theft from the company itself.

Conrad’s affair was his own business, distasteful but private.