Just starting out a new story...yeah.

Elise stared coolly across the table. Unknown to all else present, now was not the time to push her. She'd had no sleep the previous night and was wholly preoccupied with her worry. Her six-year-old daughter had been very sick for the past three days. Elise had been up all night in the bathroom with Ariana, becoming increasingly more frightened. She'd started out thinking that it was just a stomach bug, one of those things that kids pick up. She could have caught it at the daycare where Elise sent her during school breaks because Elise had to work. But now that she thought of it, Silvie, the daycare lady, hadn't mentioned anything about a stomach bug, and she was usually pretty good about notifying the parents when things like that happened. So then was it something she'd eaten? But if so, why was Ariana still sick? She couldn't keep anything down. She hadn't wanted to go to the hospital, and in any case Elise couldn't have moved her. Finally, at dawn, Ariana had been chalk-white and could no longer vomit, just dry-heave again and again.
"Ari, this is serious. I have to take you to the hospital."
The girl probably would have cried, but she was too weak and dehydrated by then. All she produced was a continuous whimpering noise that caused Elise's heart to twist and pull. She felt so helpless at her daughter's acute suffering and fear. Just as she got Ariana in the door she remembered the important business meeting she was supposed to attend today. Her heart sank. She tried calling her boss, but with dread and resignation in her heart. Stephen was notorious for being cold and unsympathetic, and sure enough, he was more or less indifferent to their suffering. Kids got sick, he said, that was life. This was an important business meeting, and she would be there, that was that. Before she could protest he hung up. She left to the sound of her daughter sobbing and begging her not to leave, a sound that was still echoing in her ears even now. She'd raced in and out of traffic, showing up late and frazzled, still in worn jeans, her pajama shirt, and her sneakers, her hair still in the same oily ponytail she'd had since yesterday, definitely not proper work attire. Stephen had frowned, said, "You're late," and then requested that she find something else to wear for the business meeting. She'd borrowed a jacket and dress pants from a sympathetic coworker, then rushed into the meeting, focused wholly on getting through this so that she could get back to her daughter.
And then there were these assholes who'd been bugging her company for years. They were trying to negotiate with her and weaken her, and right now she didn't have what it took to navigate these treacherous waters. She was going to snap any minute.