The Boardroom Went Quiet When My Mother’s Phone Rang

at me. “You assumed we’d do exactly this.”

“I hoped you wouldn’t.”

Silence.

Then she asked, very quietly, “If I’d never said that sentence today, would you still have stopped the deal?”

“Yes.”

I didn’t give her room to pretend this was about hurt feelings.

It was bigger than that. Which maybe made it worse for her.

Because she couldn’t dismiss it as me being continue reading …