Nadia's Point Of View
I shook my head violently, the heavy diamonds in my ears rattling against my jawline. My vision swam in a suffocating haze of venom and disbelief. The weight of those earrings suddenly felt like shackles.
"I am never accepting this," I muttered, my voice beginning as a dangerous whisper before it cracked, rising into a screech that tore across the open floor. My throat burned with the effort, raw and stinging. "Never! Do you all hear me? This is a joke! A pathetic, poorly calculated corporate prank!"
Lydia vibrated beside me, her entire body trembling with rage. Her face had transformed from sickly pale to mottled purple, veins visible at her temples. She whipped around to face the surrounding cubicles, her fingers flexing as though she wanted to physically rip the monitors from the desks. I'd never seen her this unhinged, not even during the Henderson merger debacle when she'd thrown a stapler at the CFO's assistant.
