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“I appreciate the opportunity at your lab,” Vivian said. “When Jay heard in his security briefing that his team would be doing the background checks for your opening, he let me know you needed someone with lab skills.”
“You’re overskilled. I met Jay yesterday when he was my escort. He seemed nice. Congratulations on your upcoming marriage.”
“Thank you,” Vivian said as Piper pushed the door open.
Jay stood. “Doctor Phillips,” he said, and his focus shifted to Vivian.
“I told Piper about us,” she said, her gaze sweeping the room. “This is amazing.” Vivian walked over and ran a hand down the satin wood that lined the room. Her focus rested on the stained-glass windows. “Amazing.”
Piper stepped forward, her hand extended. “Jay, I had no idea we were connected. It’s so nice to know you as a person rather than ‘the security guard.’” She looked over to Vivian. “We have some inventory to check in the lab.”
“Oh?” Jay turned to Vivian.
And Vivian gave him a tight smile as Jay accepted Piper’s badge and wrote their names in the ledger.
He pressed the button on his desk, and Owen came through the door to accept the badge from Jay. “Where are we heading today, Dr. Phillips?”
“The lab, please,” she said as they followed behind him to the elevator.
As Owen pressed the button, Piper leaned closer to Vivian. “I know it says basement, but it’s much nicer than one would expect. It’s modern and comfortable. My dad started this lab way back in the day when he was just finishing up his PhD.”
“Jay told me this place was beautiful. He likes working here,” Vivian said.
The elevator door slid open, and Owen held his arm out, protecting their safe exit.
They all moved into the hall and paused as Owen badged them through the next set of doors.
“I've always loved this building,” Piper said, her voice growing tight and squeaky.
She wasn’t about to do anything wrong.
She wasn’t accessing anything that wasn’t readily available to her.
But this step put her on a path that she couldn’t turn back from.
If she discovered that Lionel and Amanda were using the formula, everything would change. If she made the accusation, the funding she’d relied on would dry up. Without a good path forward, people like her family would suffer and die without a cure.
A thought tickled the dark recesses of her mind: Piper had the formula, had the skills to put it together, and could possibly survive. The selfishness of those thoughts raked Piper’s nerves.
They were at the finish line, ready for FDA trials.
If Lionel and Amanda were using the formula, people would die one way or another.
If Lionel and Amanda used the formula, Piper might have to choose who survived and who didn't—tell and stop the Harcourts from misusing the drug, or don’t tell and move forward with funding for a viable cure, leaving those who misused the drug to their consequences.
It was a horrific battle in her brain.
Piper cleared her throat and muttered, “I can imagine this place as it might have been back when it was a Harcourt family home. How beautiful and comfortable it must have been for them.”
“Only the lab today?” Owen asked, stopping at that door.
“I’ll also be putting some data in the computer.”
Owen swiped the badge, opened the lab door, and handed it to Piper. “You’ll need this then. Ring the front desk when you’re ready for an escort up.”
Then he left.
Vivian followed Piper into the lab. Her eyes swept the space as she stashed her purse on the counter and pulled on a lab coat.
