Chapter 144 013
FOR a moment, everything spinned, Amelia's heart raced with contradicting thoughts. Silence stretched, until he broke it.
“Alright, alright. Fine,” Charles said at last. “I will do it. But it’s going to take a little longer, okay?”
Amelia closed her eyes briefly, relief and frustration crashing into each other in her chest.
“Sounds more like it,” she replied, forcing steadiness into her voice. “Thank you. Please do.”
“Yeah, I will,” he said, and the line went dead almost immediately.
Amelia lowered the phone slowly and stared at it for a second, as if expecting it to ring again. It didn’t.
Ryan was the first to speak.
“Amelia—”
“Let’s go back in,” she said, already turning toward the boardroom doors.
He nodded and followed her without another word.
They walked back into the boardroom hastily, their steps measured but quick. As Amelia pushed the glass door open, the hum of voices filled the room again. Heads turned briefly in their direction, curiosity flickering across a few faces.
“I apologize for the interruption,” Amelia said smoothly, reclaiming her seat as though nothing had happened. “Please, continue.”
The presenter nodded and resumed, clicking to the next slide.
Amelia folded her hands on the table, her posture composed, her face calm. To anyone watching, she was still the same unshakable woman, focused, authoritative, in control.
But beneath the surface, her mind was elsewhere.
Gabriel’s face flashed before her eyes. His small hand wrapped in gauze. His cries. His fear.
And then Charles’ voice, hesitant, detached, convenient.
She inhaled quietly and forced herself to focus as numbers and projections filled the screen. She nodded at the right moments, asked sharp questions, made precise comments. No one would ever guess that her heart was pounding unevenly in her chest.
It was exactly 3 p.m. when the meeting finally came to an end.
Amelia stepped out of the boardroom with Ryan beside her, both of them visibly lighter than they had been three hours earlier. The tension that had clung to the room all afternoon dissolved the moment the dignitaries were escorted out, replaced by the quiet satisfaction of a battle well fought and won.
“That,” Ryan said, loosening his tie as they walked, “was brutal. But worth every second.”
Amelia laughed softly.
“Brutal is an understatement. I thought Mr. Kessler was going to tear the projections apart.”
“And yet,” Ryan grinned, “he nodded like a proud father at the end.”
She shook her head.
“I knew pushing the expansion figures forward would scare them. But scare works when confidence follows.”
“You owned that room as you always did,” Ryan said sincerely. “The board didn’t just agree, they believed.”
They walked past the showroom floor, where sales reps were already resetting displays. One of them— Sarian, was adjusting the collars on a mannequin with careful precision.
“Sarian,” Amelia called calmly without slowing. “Get me a glass of chilled water, please.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Sarian replied instantly, already moving.
Ryan chuckled.
“You didn’t even look at her.”
“I don’t need to,” Amelia replied. “She is efficient.”
They reached her office. Ryan stepped ahead and opened the door.
“Thank you,” Amelia said automatically as she walked in.
She dropped her bag beside the desk and sank into her chair with a quiet exhale. Ryan leaned against the edge of the desk, still buzzing with post-meeting adrenaline.
“I will admit,” he said, “when the foreign investors started whispering halfway through, I thought we were losing them.”
“I saw it too,” Amelia said, reaching for her tablet. “That is why I switched tactics.”
“You didn’t just switch,” Ryan laughed. “You flipped the entire script.”
She smiled, the tired kind that came from earned success.
“Experience.”
A knock sounded at the door.
Sarian entered, carrying a small tray. She knelt slightly as she placed the glass of chilled water on the desk.
“Thank you,” Amelia said, lifting the glass.
Sarian nodded and quietly turned to leave.
Amelia had just raised the glass to her lips when her phone rang.
Not softly. Not politely.
Violently.
The sudden sound startled her so badly she flinched.
“Damn it,” she muttered, quickly setting the glass down and grabbing her phone.
Ryan straightened at once.
“Everything okay?”
She glanced at the screen.
The school.
Her brows knit together immediately as she answered.
“Hello?”
Ryan watched her face change in seconds.
“Yes,” Amelia said cautiously. “This is she.”
There was a pause. Then her lips parted slightly.
“What do you mean no one has come?” she asked, her voice suddenly sharp.
Ryan pushed off the desk.
“Amelia?”
“I called earlier,” the voice on the other end continued, and Amelia’s hand tightened around the phone.
“Yes, I’m aware,” she said slowly. “He was injured. Someone was supposed to—”
Her breath hitched.
“You are saying… school dismissed an hour ago?”
Ryan was fully upright now.
“What is it?” he asked urgently.
Amelia didn’t answer.
She brought the glass to her lips without realizing it, took a sip, and immediately spat the water back into the glass, coughing softly.
Ryan rushed closer.
“Amelia!”
Her eyes were wide now, unfocused, staring straight ahead as she slowly lowered the glass back onto the desk with trembling fingers.
“Yes,” she whispered into the phone. “they are still there?”
Silence stretched.
Amelia didn’t move. Didn’t blink.
Ryan stared at her, alarm written all over his face.
“Amelia,” he said again, softer this time. “What is going on?”
She said nothing.
Her gaze remained fixed on nothing at all.