Chapter 14: What the Associates Tell
Years later—measured in fund cycles, not headlines—I overheard two associates in the pantry retelling the story wrong.
In their version I had thrown champagne or threatened a lawsuit on the spot. I stepped into the doorway and they froze. “If you’re going to tell it,” I said, “tell it accurately. I stated a capital consequence and left. The committee voted. The company changed its controls. The moral is not that women win by being icy. The moral is that public contempt is a financial input.” I poured coffee and left them with the corrected text.
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Mythology is sticky; accuracy is a discipline. I practiced accuracy the way I practiced reading covenants—daily, without applause.
Priya, long since a peer, met me for lunch and asked whether I ever missed the original $1.3 billion structure. I said I missed efficient deployment of capital in sound assets; I did not miss the illusion that VeyraTech’s governance had been ready for a lead at that size on that night. She nodded, satisfied. Lunch, for us, had become a place where ballrooms could be mentioned without heat.
