“Yeah, and worse. If you’d all been honest, it would have made a difference in how we treated you,” Polly said.
“Why was that your business?” I inquired.
“What?” Polly asked, looking surprised. The waitress brought our coffees over, and we thanked her.
“Why was it your concern if Rain, Shotgun and I were in a triad? What right did you have to pry? Was Rain happy?”
“Yeah…” Polly drawled.
“Again, what gave you the right to interfere? From your point of view, Rain and Shotgun knew I was seeing them and each other, and were okay with it. So why stick your oar in and cause drama?”
“Because we thought you were cheating on them both,” Polly defended.
“But clearly, I wasn’t. What we had was working, but because it wasn’t conventional, you tried to rip us apart. It didn’t matter if that made either Shotgun or Rain miserable. Oh, my family spoke about how your MC treated me. Believe me, you wouldn’t get me anywhere near the bunch of judgmental assholes you lot are.”
Polly flinched, and I stood up. I threw a twenty down to cover the coffee. “You’ve filled your mouth with gossip. Now feel free to run back to the rest of the bitches and Shotgun’s brothers and fill theirs. The truth was, I was apparently devastated when Shotgun chose Hellfire over our child and me.
“So upset that I’d no intention of ever returning. As it stands, I’m happy for Shotgun and Rain to see the twins. However, to point out, they must have hurt me badly. Because nobody, not even they, claims I was a spiteful witch. Makes you think, doesn’t it, how deep that pain went?”
“Allegra…”
“Luckily, I don’t remember you or what was said and done to me. Given your earlier aggression, you weren’t nice. However, with the utmost respect, I’m not condemning anyone because I don’t have memories. I imagine it would be a different story if I did. Judging people on what others say is unfair, cruel,and weak-minded. But based on what happened outside, you’re someone I don’t want to know or have around the twins. That level of hate isn’t welcome in my life.” With that, and the greatest dignity, I walked away.
Rain
“You did what?” I exclaimed as Polly explained what had happened. Jesus, when would my sisters stop interfering? For goodness sake, I was a grown man. What was their problem? Did they think I wasn’t masculine enough to defend myself?
“Sorry,” Polly muttered, and then began babbling. If I weren’t getting so riled, I’d be amused; Allegra had handed Polly her ass. They had no right to keep sticking their noses in. I just hoped she’d not pissed Allegra off and shoved her into running again. I was stuck at work, which stopped me from sorting this out. Polly’s timing was always shit.
“Polly, I’ve got to return to work. Let me warn you, if you’ve fucked this up, we’re having serious words.”
“Rain—”
“No, I’m too angry,” I replied and cut the line.
I was unsure whether to phone Allegra, but decided against it. Hopefully, we’d speak after work. Right now, there was a meeting about yesterday’s incidents. We’d been told to meet in the small conference room at one, and lunch would also be provided. I was rather surprised. My old company never communicated or did things like this. ENS, however corporate they might be, treated the staff well. Far better than most companies in the States, for certain.
I entered the conference room and took a seat. A woman from HR, Ellen, was nearby and nodded at me. “Doctor Wright, how are you?”
“Concerned. Luckily, I’d not taken anything home, but this seems a coordinated attack,” I answered.
“Yes, we felt that way too, and the board agreed. The CEO has ordered several measures to be installed to protect everybody’s safety,” Ellen replied.
“That sounds like good news.”
“It is. The board takes your decision to join us seriously. You and your team are valuable members of the company. The formula you’re working on could revolutionise the treatment of transplant rejection. It could save hundreds of thousands of lives. It’s not common knowledge, but my son had a liver transplant. He needs anti-rejection drugs daily. What you’re working on means that, one day, he might only have to take one tablet a week. That would bring considerable peace of mind.”
“Sorry to hear about your son,” I replied. The liver rejection drug was one of several I was working on, but not my secret project—Jelly Bean.
“Don’t be. He’s seven going on seventeen. But in fifteen years, he would be twenty-two and a young man, and able to live easily. Not having to take a tablet every twelve hours will allow him to be normal,” Ellen stated.
“I’ve no clue what normal is, but I understand your sentiment. Ah, here’s Dr Paulson,” I said with a nod.
The leader of my division approached the table and sat, holding a plate of food in his hands. He placed it down and coughed.
Everyone turned to look. There were ten people on my immediate team, all in the drug discovery phase. We did the initial development, then transitioned to the pre-clinical stage, and monitored the clinical development. We weren’t just working on one thing; I had several irons in the fire, one of which was extremely close to moving to the pre-clinical stage.
“Afternoon. Dr Kingston has asked me to liaise with you all. I’m sure the rumours have been abounding today, so let’s get to the facts. Fact one, four of you had break-ins this weekend. Second, your personal home offices were turned over, and number three, you all work for us. That’s not coincidence; that’s targeted. We have no idea what the target was, but we assume it’s something that you’re working on here.
