Noah and Meera walked out of the building and stopped after walking a few steps. They turned around and looked at the building. 5 minutes were going to be over soon and the bombs could blast any second now. Meera was continuously staring at the building without saying a word. Noah noticed her and held her hand tightly, expressing that he was there for her without even saying it. He was about to say something when there was a loud blast, the bombs had gone off, destroying the whole building and turning it into ruins. They both watched the building fell as the bombs went off. His grip on her hand tightened as the bombs blasted but she stood there without a single moment and no change in her expressions. All that remained, in the end, was just broken burnt remains and a long string of smoke that reached the sky. "You think it"s over now?" He asked hesitantly. He was a bit freaked out about how she behaved during the blast, as this was a victory.
"Nope," She said and looked at him. "It was just the beginning of the war and it started with his defeat but I"m pretty sure that he"ll survive this attack, he"s a lot better than that." She said and turned around.
"Meera, you sure about this?" He asked and was a little doubtful.
"About what?" She asked.
"About this whole war thing, I mean do you even realize how much people it"ll hurt?" He asked.
"I don"t know but I just can"t let him do anything bad to anyone else. This has to end." She said and looked at him in the hope that he"ll understand her.
"But it"s wrong if you do this then what"s the difference between you two." He said and she stopped suddenly.
"Are you serious?" She asked in a surprised tone. "You know it"s Sam, he"s capable of anything. I tried to defeat him without using any bad tricks but I almost saw death. There"s no other way to finish this fight without losing to him."
"Then don"t fight." He said in a very normal tone.
"What?!" She asked in surprise. "Noah do you even know what you"re saying right now. You"re asking me to just back off and not fight with the guy who destroyed my whole life and killed all the people I loved. He played with me for his entertainment and made my life a play of his." She said and was frustrated about arguing with him.
"But if you continue this it"s just gonna harm you, even more, it"s better if you just let this matter go." He said and tried to convince her to stop all this war thing.
"You know what... just stop. I"m already very stressed and having this argument with you will just drive me crazy." She said and turned away from him. He sighed and followed her.
"You know I"m just saying this because I don"t want you to get hurt." He said and wrapped his arm around her shoulder.
"I know but I"m not ready for this conversation. I have a lot of other things to worry about." She said and walked ahead of him, shaking away his arm.
Suddenly a black van stopped in front of them and she entered it without a second thought. Noah was kind of doubtful but followed her anyway. Jimmy and Sofi were sitting in the van with two other men, who were probably the bodyguards. They both introduced themselves to Noah and started driving the van, they were headed towards their hotel.
"What"s the progress?" She asked and her expressions changed completely, she looked a lot more serious.
"The bombs were blasted and 17 branches were destroyed out of 19 and the remaining ones were burnt down by our men." Jimmy said.
"Good." She replied.
"What about the rest of the work?" She asked Sofi.
"All the footage was manipulated and there"s no record of anyone of us being present at any of the scenes." Sofi told her. "There"s a lot of matters to be solved about the company though." She said with an awkward smile.
"Nothing special about that I"ve already pulled an all-nighter might as well work the whole day." She replied and smiled. Noah was just observing everything silently. He felt as if something was different and it was bothering him again and again.
She just went to her room after reaching the hotel and started working right after changing. Jimmy was with her the whole time advising her about different things.
"Ari, you gotta treat that wound first." Sofi said and brought a doctor to her room.
"You know I"m fine." She replied and kept working on her laptop.
"I also know that Uncle"s not gonna be okay with that." She said and turned her chair around. She sighed and got her wound treated.
Noah got his answer and realized what was different, she wasn"t the Meera that he knew, the girl in front of him was Aria Rong. She belonged to a whole different world, a world that he could never enter...
*Back in Sam"s the building*
The moment Meera said that there were 5 minutes left till the bombs blasted and left the building, Sam ordered his men to rush out of the building as soon as possible and he also did the same. He stood at some distance from the building and watched it come crashing down as the bombs blasted. For him, it was his dreams that were crashing and all because of her.
All this while he disliked her so much because she was a sign of betrayal that her mother left. He turned her life to h.e.l.l because he hated the fact that she was the daughter of the woman he loved but with someone else and Lucy started going away from him because of Meera. But now that she destroyed everything that he had in just a single night. He hated her more than anyone and wanted to kill her at all costs.
"I underestimated her, huh?" He said to Troy. "She destroyed everything that I had my money, my agency, everything."
"Sir..." Troy said but stopped because he had nothing that could comfort him at this moment.
"I want her dead, no matter what, even if it costs me my life." He said with anger in his eyes.
The devil inside him was wakened up, the thing he loved the most was taken away from him recklessly, just like how Lucy was taken away from him years ago. And both times, he stood Meera reasonable for his loss, now all he wanted was revenge for all the things that he lost because of her.