Chapter 3: A Disastrous Meeting

It was time! It was time for a meeting... a negotiation. Eliza was an ace at this! Making companies get wowed by her own company “Harper Corp”’s contracts was like a breeze for her. She was able to get the companies representative’s signatures on the paper with the snap of her finger. It was child’s play for her. Many people from the business world admired her such skills and destined to become just like her. 

She adjusted the cresses of her suit as she prepared herself to walk into the conference room. Her dad was standing right beside her. “You don’t have to do this now. You can postpone the meeting and I'm sure our clients will understand.” he tried to convince her. Her dad was no stranger to the fact that Eliza’s performance is at max when she was at full focus. 

The breakup and cheating incident had caused her focus to shift its balance, making it unstable. Going through an intense meeting at such a condition was something her dad did not like. He thought it was not right. Eliza needed a break according to him. 

Despite her dad’s efforts of trying to get her postpone the meeting, Eliza remained as stubborn as she was when it came to business. She never wanted to leave a case unsolved.... a contract unsigned. She was like a work freak who always ensured things got done in the company whether it was her work or not. 

“Dad, don’t worry. I’ll be fine. I’ll get them to sign the contract in no time!” she assured her dad with the same smile before walking past him and into the conference room. 

The room consisted of a huge black marble table that extended vertically and was shorter horizontally in length. A number of black leathered chairs surrounded the table while small stacks of paper remained intact in front of every chair. A small case was present near every paper stack that had a gold-plated pen inside each. That was the pen that was used for signing.

Each of those chairs were utilized by men and women from a huge company “Minwalls”. They were all ready for the meeting, waiting for Eliza to arrive. 

Eliza was in charge of making companies partner up with their company. Signing a contract with them, required a labor-intensive process. No company was every going to sign anything without negotiating for their benefit. Because of that, Eliza had to stay on top of her game. She needed to ensure that her company would get the most out of the contract while still providing a fair share to the client companies. 

Eliza opened the doors of the room and found every person’s eyes staring at her. She did not feel or looked as pumped and excited as she usually did and the people in the room were able to sense that... especially the employees from her own company. 

As soon as Eliza sat herself down with a sigh, the meeting commenced. 

“Alright. Good morning, ladies and gentleman. Let’s begin our co-operation with the contract renewal process.” Eliza greeted and got right into the main reason why everyone was gathered in the room. 

After hearing Eliza’s words, everyone began flipping through the contract pages. The atmosphere was filled with the smell of fresh paper and the voices of discussion. 

As the employees from Minwalls were going through the contract, Eliza was not feeling good. Her mind was yet again distracted by Noah’s disgusting behaviour and words. Even though she wanted to forget about him, that incident left a lasting impression on her mind. It was difficult to let go. 

She kept her sight and her mind out of the conference room. “Miss Harper” one of the representatives from Minwalls called out. His name was Mr. Garcia.

He expected her to get to him right away but this time she did not. She continued to stare out of the window, leaving Mr. Garcia on hold. He twitched his brows at her odd behaviour. “Miss Harper” he kept on calling her, feeling annoyed at her inattentiveness to the meeting. 

“Miss Harper” he said once again but this time, in a raised volume. The loud tone of this voice was finally enough to get Eliza to snap out of her own world and to come back into reality. She was finally able to listen to Mr. Garcia. 

“Miss Harper, now that I have your attention. I need to discuss with you some issues in this contract.” Mr. Garcia went on with an annoyed tone in his voice. He was not a man of patience and Eliza’s actions caused him anger. 

“Um... I’m sorry. Go on, Mr. Garcia” Eliza said with a guilt voice. She felt bad for making him wait. 

“The money percentage that we are receiving from this deal is too low. You will need to raise it.” he explained with a serious face. 

“I’m sorry, what do you m-mean?” even though Eliza was seeming to be focused on the deal, half of her mind was still stuck on Noah and Taylor, thus causing her to lag back in her decisions and speech. 

“It is too low! Change it” Mr. Garcia demanded. He meant business at this point and it was up to Eliza to make him change his mind. 

Eliza shook her head from side to side and placed her pointer finger on her forehead. Her mind was too clouded to think straight. It felt like a mental torture. 

“I don’t understand what you mean... The percentage is fine. Just sign it.” Eliza remarked in a disinterested voice. Even her face screamed misery. Overall, she looked like she did not want to be present there. 

“What are you saying, Miss Harper? I’m sitting right here in front of you, saying that the percentage is too low. It may be fine to you but not to me.” Mr. Garcia rebuked her with an angered face. 

Employees from Harper Corp were waiting for Eliza to bring in her A game and shut Mr. Garcia up. But what was happening was the quite opposite. Subsequent to Mr. Garcia’s shout, Eliza felt trapped. Her mind was utterly distracted and the shout made it even worse. She broke out in sweat and was staying silent. 

She went ahead and poured herself a glass of water to calm herself down but that did not stop Mr. Garcia from continuing to speak and mock her. 

“Miss Harper, I’m talking to you! At least have the decency to look me in the eye and talk! Miss Harper? Miss Harper!” 

Eliza had enough at that point. It was too much for her to handle. She slammed the empty glass of water onto the table and rose up from her chair. Everyone else in the room were shocked and appalled by her actions and behaviour. 

“Mr. Garcia, you wanted me to look you in the eye and talk, right? Well, here I am, looking you in the eye and saying... if you don’t like the percentage then "shut up!” she snapped at him without holding back.

Not only were the employees from Minwall shocked and horrified by Eliza’s behaviour but so were employees from Harper Corp. No one expected her to behave so unprofessionally and barbaric. 

Tom entered in the room with a saddened face. He took a good look at the commotion that Eliza caused in the conference room. It was truly a tough situation to cool down from erupting any further. 

He walked inside and went towards Eliza to hold her back. “Honey, are you ok?” he asked her with a concerned face as she was breathing deeply and in stress. 

“I have never experienced such unprofessionalism ever before in my life. Good luck, Mr. Harper. I don’t know how you are going to manage your daughter but this deal is cancelled! We are no longer interested in working with you and you can thank your daughter for that.” Mr. Garcia yelled before leaving the room with the other employees. 

Eliza broke down in tears. She was not able to handle so many things at once. She knew now that she should have listened to her dad and cancelled the meeting. She felt terrible for ruining the deal because of her own personal problems. 

“I’m sorry!” she kept on hiccupping her words. 

Her dad shook his head and pulled her in for a hug. He did not care about the meeting. He did not care how Eliza acted. His fatherly love and care took over and all he wanted was to see her happy once again. He wanted the old, happy Eliza back. 

Eliza kept on crying. Her shoulders were shivering as tears rolled down her face. Her dad kept patting her on the back to try and calm her down. 

It was time for Eliza to leave and go home to sleep the painful day away. She got out of the company building as instructed by her dad and decided to head home. 

Her driver came with the car at the entrance of the building where Eliza was standing all alone. Her driver came out of his seat to open the passenger door for her. Her face was stained with tears and pain. She got in the car slowly. Her body was drained out of energy.

As she was on her way home, she made the driver stop at the side of the road. The driver was confused why she made him do that as they were not even close to her house. Why did she do that?