Chapter 11:- The Meeting

Kate's POV

The doors to the hall opened, and I wheeled Calvin inside like I’d been doing it all my life.

Except my hands were trembling, and I could feel dozens of eyes sweeping over me like I didn’t belong here. Because I didn’t.

The hall was grand, crystal chandeliers above, long polished table below, and a sea of faces that looked carved from stone. Rich men and women. Old money. Bloodlines that probably never mingled with people like me.

Calvin leaned in slightly and whispered, “Just breathe. They’re more scared of me than you think.”

I didn’t believe him. Not when I saw how some of them looked at him. Not when I spotted a man in a navy suit at the far end of the hall, arms folded, eyes locked on me like a sniper lining up a target.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Calvin said, voice calm, composed, “thank you for coming. Before we begin, I’d like to introduce someone important.”

He glanced at me, then back at them.

“This is Kate Johnson, my wife, and my partner in the coming expansion.”

Polite claps echoed around the room. Too polite.

Except for the man at the back. He didn’t move. Just kept staring.

I forced a smile and nodded. Inside, my stomach twisted.

The meeting started. Numbers, projections, graphs. I tried to pay attention, but all I could think about was Pristine. And the way she’d said I “wouldn’t last long.”

Calvin brought up a proposed merger. I recognized one of the names. Pristine’s company, or according to him, her father's company.

Figures.

Then it came. The question I had been expecting.

“Mr. Johnson,” a sharp voice cut through the room. A woman. Blonde. Elegant. Cold eyes. “With all due respect, what exactly are your wife’s qualifications to weigh in on any of this?”

The room stilled. I felt every pair of eyes shift toward me.

I blinked, swallowed, and smiled.

“I’m sorry,” I said sweetly. “Are qualifications required to stand beside your husband in a room full of strangers who either want him dead or want to sleep with him?”

Silence.

Someone coughed. Then a quiet chuckle from Calvin.

“Well said,” he murmured.

The woman smiled tightly and sat down.

During a short break, I stood by the refreshment table, sipping something cold just to steady my nerves.

That’s when something unexpected happened.

A woman, older, maybe a server, passed beside me and whispered, “Keep your eyes open, Mrs. Johnson. You have no idea what you've just walked into.”

I froze. Turned to look at her, but she was already walking away.

My heart thudded.

I hadn’t even processed her words when the meeting resumed. Calvin was explaining something about land shares and patents.

Then a voice rose from the back of the hall.

“I think before we proceed, Mrs. Johnson deserves to know the truth.”

Everyone turned.

It was the man in the navy suit.

He stepped forward slowly, his face unreadable. “About the last woman, my sister, who sat beside Mr. Blackwood at this very table,” he continued. “And how she ended up buried before she could even say ‘I do.’”

Gasps echoed around the room. My chest tightened. I gripped the edge of the chair, trying not to show fear.

I didn’t even realize I was holding my breath until Calvin slowly turned his wheelchair toward the man in navy.

He didn’t yell. He didn’t flinch.

“I must say,” Calvin began, his voice calm, clipped, “I’m a little disappointed.”

He looked around the room slowly, locking eyes with everyone in turn.

“This was supposed to be a strategic meeting about a multi-billion dollar expansion project. And yet, somehow, it has been reduced to a debate about my wife’s qualifications… and ghost stories about a woman who is no longer here.”

He paused, his tone sharpening ever so slightly.

“Tell me something,” he said, leaning slightly forward, “am I the one you’re negotiating with… or is it my wife?”

Silence.

The man in navy looked like he wanted to speak, but Calvin didn’t let him.

“No?” Calvin raised an eyebrow. “Then let me make one thing very clear to everyone in this room…”

His eyes darkened, jaw tight.

“If anyone, anyone, raises a controversy about my wife in my presence again, whether it’s about her past, her looks, her status, or ridiculous theories about my former wife’s death…”

He looked straight at the man now.

“…they’ll have a very serious problem to deal with. And I don’t care who you are.”

A few people shifted in their seats. One even lowered their head.

Calvin turned back toward the table and added, “Now, shall we proceed with the actual agenda?”

I stared at him, completely stunned.

It was the first time he’d actually defended me.

But what struck me more… was the way he spoke about his ex-wife.

As though he didn't even have any affection for her when she was alive.

Calvin’s voice filled the room again, this time calm but firm.

“This project we’re discussing today isn’t just another expansion plan,” he said, his fingers lightly tapping the table. “It’s an initiative that, if executed right, will change the face of the business world as we know it.”

All eyes were on him.

“It revolves around the introduction of AI-powered bots as a new standard for security, replacing traditional guards with intelligent, responsive systems capable of handling threats faster and more efficiently. From private estates to high-risk facilities, this technology could reduce insecurity across the city, and if scaled properly… the entire country.”

Murmurs buzzed across the room.

Someone leaned forward. “Will you be the one overseeing the project, Mr. Johnson?”

Calvin smiled. it was deliberate and calculated.

“No,” he said, glancing at me. “I have someone else in mind.”

I stiffened.

“My wife, Kate, will oversee it.”

The room fell silent again. My heart skipped. My palms went cold.

“She has everything I need in a leader, grit, composure under pressure, and a fresh perspective. I trust her judgment.”

I didn’t know whether to feel honored or like I’d just been thrown into a lion's den, again.

But I smiled, anyway.