Who We Aren't (SLOW UPDATE)

Chapter 13

Wow, this chapter was hard! And it took a turn in a direction I was not expecting. Enjoy and let me know what you think. Your support has been amazing. Thank you! And a huge thanks for being patient with me.

***

**| Sang's POV |**

I watched Kristin Lenaro stalk away in a fit of pure anger.

"What crawled up her butt and died?" Gabriel asked, coming over to stand next to me. I kept my eyes on the angry woman.

"She has to face a huge loss and she blames me," I whispered, feeling the vice grip on my heart twist. She lost family because I was a failure.

"A business deal, right," Sean asked.

I just nodded. Something like that.

I turned to face the four men. I plastered on a smile at an attempt to hide my pain but I didn't succeed as all three of them frowned at me.

"I need to go get ready for the meeting."

Sean nodded. "Of course, time to head back."

Gabriel moaned but a glare from both Sean and Victor had him shutting up. He grumbled something underneath his breath as we began the long trek back to my hotel room.

"How long is the meeting?" Sean asked, looking at me with concern. He knew this meeting was more than what I said it was going to be but thankfully, he wasn't asking.

"Should be over by six," I said. "It's just a mandatory meeting to go over what went wrong and how to do better if ever put in a situation like that again."

And I hoped I was never put back into a situation like that again.

"And then we can go to Hershey's Chocolate World?" Luke asked.

I nodded and allowed my lips to curl up into a smile. "And then we can go buy all the chocolate we can carry."

Luke chuckled and rubbed his hands together in delighted anticipation.

We headed back to the hotel and I made quick work of getting ready before leaving them in my room. I made sure to have everything I needed for the meeting tucked away in a briefcase. I headed out, my shoulders slumping as I walked to the meeting point. It wasn't far, just a few blocks away.

When I got there, I stared up at the four-story building, reminding myself to take deep breaths. I wasn't on trial. We were just going to talk and go over every decision I made and why. That was it. No pressure.

I gripped my purse tightly and blew out a breath. I had to do this now.

Just a simple meeting. Right.

The door mocked me as I approached, daring me to walk through it instead of turning around and walking away like I wanted.

I wasn't a wimp. I was a survivor. I would survive this too.

I pushed through it with a little more force than I needed and walked into the small lobby, turning right and going up a set of stairs tucked away. On the third floor, I pushed open the door and walked down the hallway, my shoes clacking against the tile floors.

"Miss," a man nodded at me. He was standing by a door, eyes watchful.

I nodded to him and opened the door. Everyone was already inside, including a glaring Ms. Lenaro. They were in a small room with a long conference table with about ten chairs around it.

"Sang, thank you for coming,"

I nodded at the committee. The committee consisted of two women, Clara Fletcher and Yvette Chambers, and three men, Darrel Shelton, Alan Copeland, and Randy Collins. They were all seasoned Academy members in their early to late sixties, three of them retired, the other two acting as mentors. Whenever I had to deal with a committee for a mission, they were who I dealt with. They were part of the few who knew of my situation.