The lawyers rode in the carriage, their faces clouded with frustration. The tension between them was palpable.
"What are we going to tell them?" one muttered, his voice barely hiding his dread.
"The truth," another replied, resting his head against the carriage wall, eyes shut like he could sleep away the disaster ahead.
"Are you out of your mind?" A third lawyer exploded, his fists clenching. "We can't tell them the truth! What, we walk in there and say some kid wants 20k, and we folded? That we couldn't outtalk a teenager? No way." His voice was trembling with rage, his pride more wounded than his confidence. "I didn't fight my way to the top just to have my career shattered by some punk who barely knows how to read."
"Got a better idea?" The first lawyer raised an eyebrow, though he already knew the answer.
A bitter silence filled the carriage, broken only by the clatter of wheels on cobblestones.
