Jasper's smile looked like it had been assembled from instructions. “Five years," he told the room, voice carrying. “Five pillars. One team."
Applause; forks; the quartet resuming a song it hated.
He stuck to Angela's script for exactly ninety seconds. “We've grown because we believe in trust—" he said, and his eyes slid to Caroline. “—and in taking responsibility together."
Angela rubbed her temple. Maya stared at her nails and didn't blink.
He ended with “Here's to the next five," and the clapping was the sound people make when they want a course.
As he stepped off the stage, he veered, cutting through donors and pillars, past a waiter who flinched. He found Caroline near the back, where Thorne had stopped to talk to a board member who suddenly forgot his own name.
“Come with me,"
