And for a single second, his face went completely pale.

The sight of his dead twin sister’s dress, the dress he must have recognized instantly, the dress from a childhood that ended in fire, seemed to strike some deep and hidden nerve.

For just a moment, beneath the cold corporate armor, I saw a flash of something raw and wounded, a boy who had lost his sister and his father in a single winter.

And then it was gone, vanished as quickly as it had come, replaced by a sneer of pure contempt.