“That was something I’d been holding onto. Something I built from scratch. And you just gave it away to random people. Are you fucking serious?”
“Sam, stop whining. It’s not that big of a deal,” a man from the crowd suddenly said as he stepped forward, standing beside Celia.
“Your personal project isn’t that impressive anyway,” he continued, waving a hand as if brushing it aside. “We’re helping you with it, aren’t we? So why can’t you make a little room for a few more people?”
A murmur rose at once. Several others chimed in, nodding quickly, their voices overlapping as they echoed their agreement.
“Yeah, I don’t understand why you’re acting like you were forced to make a massive sacrifice.”
“Giving access to a few more people won’t ruin you.”
“Your project just helps more people. What’s wrong with that?”
“Why are you yelling at Celia? She was just trying to help.”
The voices overlapped, surrounding him from all sides.
Sam’s face turned darker with fury. His jaw clenched so hard the muscles twitched.
He stepped forward suddenly, his anger boiling over. “How dare you!? You ruined my reputation, and now you’re pretending to be innocent?”
But before he could get any closer, several people moved quickly.
They blocked him.
“Back off!” someone yelled, shoving him in the chest.
“Get out of here!”
“We told you it’s not a big deal!”
“If you can’t accept it, then leave!”
They pushed him again, forcing him backward.
“It’s Celia’s dad’s company anyway,” someone sneered. “What are you going to do about it?”
“Yeah! You don’t own this company,” another added. “You can keep yelling, but it won’t change the fact that Celia helped us and you didn’t.”
“She’s the good one here.”
“You’re the worst.”
Celia stood behind them, silent now, her expression wounded — but she didn’t ask them to stop.
Another voice chimed in boldly. “We’ll take over the project. You don’t have to worry about it anymore.”
“We don’t need you on this project.”
“You’re out.”
“You can’t kick me out of my own damn project!” Sam shouted, his voice almost breaking.
But no one was listening anymore.
Someone shoved him roughly toward the hallway. Others joined in. They kept pushing him back, forcing him farther and farther away from Celia.
In the chaos, one of the employees slipped away. A few minutes later, he returned with a security guard.
