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She nodded as he stood up. She waved to me as I let Cooper lead me from her room. Wordlessly, he escorted me back downstairs and out to the car.
Once inside, I released a slow, steady sigh.
Cooper got into the driver’s seat, but hesitated, not starting the engine just yet.
“Cooper, I had no idea. You didn’t need to bring me here, and put your poor sister through that just to prove me wrong. You could’ve just told me.”
The whole encounter had been both overwhelming and awkward. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen with Cooper, but on the off chance that our relationship ever evolved past arguments and angry sex, I didn’t want to look back and remember tonight as the first—and possibly only—time I ever met his sister, who very well could be the last remaining member of his immediate family. I knew his father had passed away, and he’d never brought up his mother. After tonight—I wasn’t about to ask.
I swallowed hard and squeezed my eyes shut, trying to push all the emotions down before I had a full breakdown. I already felt that I was teetering very close to the edge.
“You’re right,” Cooper said.
My eyes flew open again, unsure I’d heard him correctly. I was right? I hadn’t realized him capable of admitting it.
“But, I wanted you to meet her,” he continued, tearing his eyes off the steering wheel and looking over at me. It was dark outside and the interior lights of the car had already faded to black. I could barely see his face in the lights on the dashboard showing the time, temperature, and radio station playing softly in the background.
“Why?” I whispered. I hated to ask, but I had to know.
“So that you would understand me, and also why I’ve asked you to do what I’ve asked you to do.”
My brow wrinkled, confused by his answer.
“She’s the reason why I need the competiti
on’s formulas.”
“What are you talking about?”
Cooper looked away again, staring out the front windshield pensively. “I need to know the competition’s formulas because of Angie, and her condition. She’s used their products since before she was even a teenager. Their soaps, lotions, fragrances. Our father started Plush when she was young, but she and my father had some issues. I think her using the lead competition’s products instead of our father’s was just another little dagger she could use to hurt him. Obviously, that sounds petty to us, but at the time, it was important to her.”
I nodded, although I still didn’t understand why that mattered.
“The kind of cancer she has is linked to a certain chemical compound. I won’t bore you with all the scientific stuff, but the bottom line is that this chemical has been banned for nearly twenty years here in the US. The problem is that they still use it in other countries, which is how it still ends up in some products on the shelves today. Plush’s competition swears they don’t use the ingredient in their products, and that they never have, but I have reason to believe they’re lying. That’s why I needed someone to hack into their system and get the information in a less than legal way,” Cooper concluded.
The pieces were starting to click together, but I was still so confused.
“Why not give the FDA or whoever an anonymous tip?”
Cooper snorted. “Allie, if they’re using this chemical compound, it would ruin their business and possibly mean jail time for the execs. They have very smart people in place to make sure this stays buried. For good.”
“And you really think I’m capable of finding it?”
Again, his assessment of my skills seemed way overinflated.
“Like I told you at the beginning, I need someone I can trust. If I hire some tech guy, like that Clay guy who was sniffing around for the job—”
He kept talking but my world stopped at the instant Clay’s name left his lips.
“Wait, wait, wait. Clay?” I jerked around in my seat to look Cooper directly in the face. “Clay who?”
“I don’t know his last name. He’s a consultant. That part’s not important. What I’m trying to explain is that someone like that would come in and do the job, but they would know I was digging and would probably assume I was just trying to steal formulas to adjust my existing product line to make more money. Something stupid.”
A flush of shame drained my cheeks as I had thought the exact same thing at one point in time.
Now that I could clearly see the full picture, it was like pieces of a kaleidoscope finally coming together into one picture.
“Cooper, why didn’t you just tell me all of this in the first place? You said that you trusted me, that’s why you gave me the job, but then you held all this back from me. Why?” I asked, gesturing over at the beautiful mansion.
