Sandra, who had been nodding along with increasing enthusiasm throughout his speech, straightened her spine and opened her mouth to respond with what she clearly intended to be a reassuring and professional commitment.
"Of course, sir, absolutely. I completely understand what you're asking for, and I will try my very best to—"
She never finished the sentence.
The moment the word "try" left her lips, Richard's father stopped dead in his tracks, and the energy in the room shifted in an instant. He turned to face her slowly, and the expression on his face was not one of anger exactly, but of something perhaps more unsettling than anger - a calm, precise, utterly serious disappointment that made the temperature in the room feel as though it had dropped by several degrees.
He raised one finger and pointed it directly toward her, not aggressively, but with the kind of deliberate, measured authority that made the gesture feel far more powerful than any raised voice could have.
