Chapter 4. Last Awaiting Room

"Keep close, Miss Vance," the stern Human Resources officer said, not looking back as she marched directly into the private glass elevator.

I stepped inside, my cheap flats sinking into the impossibly thick carpet. The doors sealed shut with a heavy, final click, cutting off the loud, frantic noise of the lower floors. As the elevator shot upward, the silence in the small cabin pressed heavily against my ears. My heart hammered against my ribs, matching the fast, rising numbers on the digital display.

The heavy elevator doors glided slowly open to the top floor of the massive building. The air here felt different. It was much colder, heavier, and completely silent. There were no ringing phones, no hurried footsteps, and no casual conversations. The lighting was dim and warm, casting long shadows against the dark wooden walls. It truly did not feel like a regular corporate office. It felt like a fortress designed to keep ordinary people out.

I followed the silent officer down a very wide, empty corridor. My grip tightened on my document folder until my knuckles turned white. Every step I took felt entirely too loud in the suffocating quiet.

"Have a seat," the officer instructed, gesturing toward a sleek waiting area just outside a pair of massive double doors. She immediately turned and disappeared down another hallway without another word.

I sat slowly on the edge of a stiff leather chair. Three other hopeful candidates were already waiting quietly in the room. They sat far apart, trapped in their own personal islands of dread. The confident, polished energy I had seen in the main lobby was entirely gone.

To my left, a man in an expensive gray suit was staring blankly at the floor. His hands shook violently as he kept clicking and unclicking a silver pen. Across from him, a woman with perfect posture kept swallowing hard, a thin layer of sweat shining on her pale forehead. Another candidate was silently chewing her bottom lip, her eyes darting nervously toward the heavy wooden doors every time the air conditioning hummed.

I leaned back slightly, a strange, sudden wave of clarity washing over my panicked mind. I was terrified, desperate, and completely out of my element. But as I watched the man drop his pen with a loud clatter and quickly scramble to pick it up with trembling fingers, my own breathing started to slow down.

I was not the only one suffocating under the pressure. Every single person in this room was absolutely terrified.

The woman sitting across from me suddenly leaned forward, her voice dropping to a harsh whisper. "Have you ever met Ethan Blackwood before?"

I startled slightly, pulling my folder closer to my chest. "No," I whispered back, shaking my head. "Never."

The candidate beside her let out a cold, bitter laugh, adjusting his tight tie with a trembling hand. "You should consider yourself lucky," he muttered, looking toward the heavy wooden office doors with genuine dread. "My friend worked in accounting on the twelfth floor. He said Blackwood isn't even human. The man demands absolute perfection, and if you make one single mistake, you're fired on the spot. He went through four personal assistants last month alone."

"I heard he destroyed a major company just because their manager arrived two minutes late to a meeting," the woman added, her pale face growing even paler. "He doesn't care about experience, degrees, or excuses. He looks right through you until you feel like nothing."

Hearing their whispered stories made the cold air in the quiet hallway feel much heavier. The terrifying rumors about the CEO's impossibly strict personality and brutal standards echoed through my mind, making my stomach twist into painful knots. Across the room, the man in the gray suit suddenly stood up, staring down at his trembling hands in absolute panic.

"This is crazy," he whispered, his voice cracking. "We're walking straight into a slaughterhouse. There's no way any normal person can satisfy someone like him."

He clutched his briefcase tightly, clearly questioning if he should just turn around and sprint toward the elevator before his name was called. The woman beside him stared blankly at the floor, all the confidence completely drained from her eyes as she silently doubted her own worth.

I swallowed hard, my own pulse hammering violently against my throat. Part of me desperately wanted to join them, stand up, and run away from this intimidating building. But then I remembered the mountain of unpaid medical bills waiting for me at home, the landlord's sharp threats, and my family's empty kitchen.

I had suffered through four long months of constant rejection and humiliating failure just to reach this floor. I had come way too far to turn back now. I pressed my back firmly against the leather chair, took a quiet, deep breath, and silently swore to myself that I would not walk away.

A loud, heavy click echoed through the quiet hallway as the massive double doors of the CEO’s office suddenly swung open.

The entire waiting area instantly fell completely silent. Every whisper died, and nobody dared to move or take a single loud breath. We all froze in our seats, turning our heads in total shock toward the open doorway.

A male candidate stepped slowly out into the corridor. His polished hair was messy, his tie hung loose around his unbuttoned collar, and his eyes stared blankly straight ahead. His face was pale and drained of all color and life. He held his expensive leather folder loosely in one hand, completely unaware that several printed pages were slipping out and falling onto the dark carpet. He did not bother to pick them up. He looked completely crushed, as if his entire spirit had been broken into tiny pieces in just a few short minutes.

He walked past us like a hollow ghost, his heavy steps dragging across the floor. Nobody sitting in the silent room dared to ask him what had happened inside that dark private room. We did not need to. The total defeat written across his pale face told us everything we needed to know. The CEO had destroyed him without a second thought.

The massive wooden office door slowly clicked shut behind him, sealing the dark mystery inside once again. A cold, suffocating dread settled over the remaining candidates. The man in the gray suit slumped backward in his chair, staring at the ceiling in absolute horror, while the woman beside me gripped her knees so hard her knuckles turned completely white. My heart hammered wildly against my ribs like a trapped bird, each painful beat echoing loudly inside my ears.

A moment later, the sharp sound of high heels echoed down the hallway. The Human Resources officer returned, holding a thick new Manila file tightly in her hand. She stopped right in front of the heavy double doors, her expression completely unreadable and cold.

The air in the room grew terribly thin. Everyone held their breath in total silence, waiting with agonizing dread to hear who would be called next. I clutched my own document folder against my ribs, my trembling fingers digging into the paper.

The officer slowly opened the folder, scanned the top page, and looked directly up at me.

My heart skipped a beat.

Why was she looking at me like that?

I held my breath, waiting for her to say something. The silence stretched between us, making my pulse race as I wondered what was written on that page.