“One of the reportsaccidentally ended up in my pigeonhole,” Jimmy said. “I know company policy isnot to look at them, but… I knew it was your project, and I was curious. Andthen… I know why you didn’t notice, but there were things in there—numbers thatdidn’t make sense. Thatcouldn’tmake sense. It’s not your faultyou didn’t notice.”
I needed to lie down.
No, I needed to run away.Out the door, into the elevator, and then across the park outside, and not stopuntil I reached the ocean.
I’d never wanted to befurther away from a place in my entire life. Right now, I wanted to run andnever come back.
Aftereverything,this was too much.
I didn’t like John, butI would never have thought he was capable of doing something like this.
“He told me someone brokeinto his office,” I said after a moment, some part of my brain apparentlyperfectly capable of operating without the rest of it. “That was you.”
Who else could it have been?I thought at the time that he was just making shit up—for sympathy, or tominimize what had happened to me, or hell, maybe even in a genuine, misguidedattempt to make me feel better.
But no. If Jimmy could breakinto one office, he could break into two.
“I’d like to state for therecord that neither of you actually lock your offices,” he said. “So it wasmore like wandering into them without you being present.”
“And taking files,” Ipointed out, still somehow managing to function in spite of my spinning head.
I needed to understand. OnceI understood, I could collapse in a heap.
“Let’s not pretend you didn’tdo the wrong thing,” Gray said, looking at Jimmy. “You’re here to plead formercy, not convince us you’re innocent.”
Stomach clenching, I turnedmy attention to Gray instead. “Do you think he deserves mercy?”
“I think you need to hearwhat he has to say.” Gray held my gaze, his lips pursed seriously.
That wasn’t what I neededright now. I needed him to hold me while I cried about howunfairthis was, how itshouldn’thave been happening to me.
“The results of the studyare definitely being faked,” Jimmy said. “Bryant plans to prove it after youpublish them.”
“Butwhy?” I asked,desperate to hear the whole theory fall apart. If there was some way this couldall just be a nightmarish misunderstanding, I wanted to believe it was.
“His family used to own halfthe company, right?” Gray responded. “So the idea is to shake investorconfidence so the ass falls out of the share price and buy back a controlling interestfor pennies on the dollar of therealvalue.”
How long had Gray understoodhow the share market worked?
Maybe that was harsh, but Iwas surprised to learn that he knew or cared about company ownership.
More to the point, I didn’t want what he wassaying to make so much gut-wrenching sense.
John had been feeling my dadout about selling part of his share to him. All the pieces fit together.
“So we…” I paused, unsurewhat I was about to say.
If I told anyone the trialwas being tampered with, I’d have to shut it down.
If Iknew, and failedto do anything, then I’d be responsible.
What the hell was I supposedto do? Maddi was getting better. She only had one more treatment to go, andthen surgery, and then…
Shewasgettingbetter. But if it was being faked…
“The kids,” I saideventually, the part of my brain that had been operating on autopilot finallyfailing. This was too much.
Thiswas why I didn’t feel evenclose to ready to be responsible for the whole company. Dad probably had tomake calls like this every day.
