Chapter 14: CRAZY MEETING

Meera's POV

The boardroom felt suffocating, the air thick with tension. The usual hum of polite conversation had morphed into an endless squabble, each person fighting for their own agenda. The voices grew louder, overlapping, one accusation after another. Every word felt like a dagger to my chest, but none of them seemed to care. I stood frozen at the head of the table, my hands gripping the edges so hard my knuckles turned white.

"I told you this wouldn't work!" Raymond’s voice boomed across the room, his face flushed red. "We're not signing anything until we have a better guarantee."

"I’m not going to keep going in circles with you!" Claire shot back, her arms folded across her chest, eyes narrowed. "Your numbers are a joke, Raymond. They were wrong from the start!"

They didn't even notice me anymore, just locked in their own battle of egos and stubbornness. This was supposed to be the deal that would save my company, that would turn everything around. But instead, it felt like it was slipping through my fingers. Every attempt to steer the conversation in the right direction had been drowned out by their childish bickering. My patience was worn thin, fraying at the edges.

I could feel the heat rising in my chest, the frustration threatening to consume me. They wanted a solution, but no one seemed interested in working for it. They just wanted to blame each other for the mess we were in. I couldn't take it anymore.

Without thinking, I stood up, slamming my fist down on the table. The loud crack of the impact cut through the arguing, making everyone freeze.

"Enough!" My voice was sharp, cutting through the chaos like a knife. "We’re not getting anywhere like this, and I am done pretending this is a discussion."

Silence hung in the room for a moment. Everyone’s eyes were on me now, but the frustration still smoldered within me, bubbling just beneath the surface. I wasn’t done. Not by a long shot.

"You," I pointed at Raymond, ignoring the heat radiating from his glare. "You knew these numbers were flawed. You were warned. So don’t stand there acting like you’re the innocent party."

He opened his mouth, but I wasn’t finished.

"And you," I snapped at Claire, who had the audacity to look defensive. "You knew damn well these projections were risky, yet you acted like they were golden. Your confidence was misplaced, and now we’re all paying for it."

I turned away, my eyes scanning the room, unwilling to let any of them off the hook.

"Every single one of you is at fault here. And no one seems to care about what happens to this company. So don’t look at me like I’m the villain for wanting this deal to go through. I’ve been carrying this weight alone, and frankly, I’m sick of it."

The room was dead quiet now, the only sound the hum of the fluorescent lights above us. The anger that had been building in me for so long hung in the air like a storm cloud, and I wasn’t backing down.

I threw my papers down onto the table, the sharp sound of them hitting the wood making everyone jump.

"I’m done here."

I didn’t wait for their response. Without another word, I turned on my heel and marched out of the boardroom, my heels clicking sharply against the polished floor. I could feel their eyes on my back, but I didn’t care. The last thing I needed was more empty words from people who couldn’t even be bothered to understand the bigger picture.

The hallway stretched before me, the muted light making everything feel colder, lonelier. I had no idea where I was going; I just needed to get away from the suffocating atmosphere of that room. Every step I took felt like I was walking further into the unknown, away from the chaos, away from them.

But before I could reach the stairs, a firm grip closed around my wrist, halting me in my tracks.

I spun around, fury and confusion burning in my chest, but the words died on my tongue when I saw who it was.

Gabriel.

His presence was like a storm, commanding and unwavering. His dark eyes held a glint of something unreadable as he kept his hand firmly around my wrist, his grip not painful, but unyielding.

"What the hell do you think you’re doing?" I hissed, pulling back, but he didn’t let go.

"You’re walking away," he said calmly, as if we weren’t standing in the middle of a corporate battlefield. "What good will that do?"

I blinked, trying to shake off the irritation and confusion clawing at me. "What good will it do? You want me to stay there? In the middle of that circus?"

He let out a soft chuckle, though there was no humor in it. "That ‘circus’ as you call it, is the reality we’re dealing with. Running away won’t solve anything. It never does."

His words stung, but they also hit too close to home. I felt my pulse quicken, the frustration from earlier swelling back up, and I jerked my wrist again, trying to break free of his hold. "Don’t tell me what to do, Gabriel. You don’t understand what it’s like—"

"Then explain it to me," he cut me off, his voice quiet but intense. "Tell me why you think running away is the solution. Tell me why you think ignoring the problem makes it disappear."

I stared at him, my chest tightening. My mind screamed at me to push him away, to walk past him and leave, but something inside me stopped. His words cut through the layers of anger and frustration I had been carrying, and suddenly, it felt as if I couldn’t breathe.

"I’m tired," I whispered, my voice cracking despite myself. "I’ve been fighting for so long, and I’m so damn tired."

Gabriel’s grip softened, his thumb brushing over my wrist in an almost gentle gesture. "Then stop fighting alone."