I froze on the fifth slide.
I was doing all I could to have my breathing steady, it was for five seconds and I felt every millisecond of it because Lucas DiGiallorenzo was sitting at the head of that table with his jacket off and his tie loosened and his eyes were not on the slides.
They were on me.
They had been on me since he sat down.
Nadia's hand found my elbow. So light it was almost nothing, just the briefest press of her fingers, and her voice came in smooth and clean right where I had dropped the last sentence, carrying it forward without a stumble, without drawing attention to the gap, the way she always covered for me without ever making it feel like she was covering for me.
I found the next slide. I found my voice and I kept going.
I did not look at him for four minutes, I
