Raymond pushed back his chair. “I’m not going to be interrogated at my own table by a girl who plays hacker for rent.”
Leah stood. She did it calmly, without drama, the way she stood up in boardrooms where someone had underestimated her and was about to be corrected.
“Cybersecurity consultant,” she said. “And for the record, nothing required hacking. When internal documents and login architecture are accessible through misconfigured third-party integrations, that is incompetence, not sophistication. Anyone with the right training and enough patience can find it.”
Marjorie looked at her with unmistakable admiration.
Trevor stood as well, less out of solidarity than out of the restless energy of a person who doesn’t know where to put himself. “Dad, is there actually an investigation?”
Raymond snapped: “Sit down.”
That single command told them more than anything Leah had said.
Kayla spoke carefully. “Ray, if this is real, maybe you shouldn’t be talking about your position like that.”
Raymond’s face had gone red. “I said sit down.”