Silence.
Then the sentence that changed everything.
“The Brooks file has just been reopened.”
Naomi did not understand.
Ethan did.
At least enough to know what those words should not mean.
Accident files did not reopen because a child boarded an airplane.
Not two years later.
Not minutes before departure.
Not with the airline president personally calling the flight deck.
Ethan’s voice lowered.
“Why?”
Another pause.
“New cockpit evidence was recovered this morning.”
Ethan felt the floor beneath him become strangely unreal.
“What evidence?”
“We cannot discuss it over an open aircraft channel.”
Ethan looked toward Naomi.
Her father smiled from the photograph.
The older woman finally stopped looking angry.
Now she looked nervous.
The airline president spoke again.
“Captain, security and Corporate Safety are coming aboard.”
“Understood.”
“Do not permit passenger Brooks to leave unaccompanied.”
Naomi’s eyes widened.
Ethan immediately corrected him.
“She is not being detained.”
“No.”
“Absolutely not.”
“We need to speak with her guardian.”
“Her mother is already being contacted.”
The transmission ended.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Naomi looked up at Ethan.
“What does reopened mean?”
Ethan wished he could lie.
Not a big lie.
Just enough to protect seven-year-old eyes from adult uncertainty.
But Marcus had hated adults lying to children because they believed children could not handle truth.
Ethan remembered him saying that once.
“Kids know when you’re lying.”
“They just don’t always know what the lie is.”
So Ethan chose carefully.
“It means people found something new about your daddy’s accident.”
“Something bad?”
“I don’t know yet.”
Naomi looked at the photograph.
She pressed it closer.
The older woman cleared her throat.
“Perhaps the child should be taken somewhere private.”
Ethan looked toward her.
Her voice had changed.
Gone was the sharp superiority.
Now she sounded concerned.
Or afraid of looking unconcerned.
Ethan could not tell.
Naomi could.
Children were good at that.
The woman continued.
“This has obviously become a sensitive family issue.”
Naomi stared at her.
“You wanted me in the back five minutes ago.”
The woman flushed.
Several passengers looked away to hide reactions.
Ethan stood.
“Claire.”
“Yes?”
“Bring Naomi a dry blanket.”
“And whatever spare shirt we have in the crew kit.”
Claire nodded.
The woman beside Naomi began gathering her things.
“I’m willing to move.”
Nobody had asked.
She stood.
Ethan stepped aside.
“Where?”
“Any other First-Class seat.”