Chapter 2

Martin Harvey came over, clutching a stack of documents.

"Ms. Kurt, our only chance to turn this around now is to release the lab report to clear our name." His voice trembled despite his attempt to keep it steady.

My phone vibrated in my pocket. Jack had sent me three short messages, each colder than the last.

"It's not a good time to release the lab report. It could undermine public confidence in the authorities' investigation."

"Shirley has been nominated for Top Ten Heroes of the Year. We can't let any negative publicity hurt her chances right now."

"Just play along for now. Issue a statement saying the food's appearance changed because of improper temperature control during storage. Once this blows over, I'll find a way to make it up to you."

I stared at the words "Just play along for now". My stomach twisted.

Back when Jack first joined the city's Department of Health, a small local diner was falsely reported by a competitor.

He spent three days and nights going through surveillance footage and invoices to prove their innocence. He even stood up to his supervisor, insisting that the government had no right to ruin a small business without solid evidence.

I loved how stubborn he was about doing the right thing.

That was one of the reasons I quit my corporate job and started the company. I wanted to make safe, high-quality food and build a company that could stand behind his beliefs.

Now he was the deputy director of the city's Department of Health. Yet when Shirley said she suspected something was wrong with the 30,000 relief meals my company had produced, he didn't hesitate to have them destroyed.

After that, he even wanted me to take the blame and help Shirley come out of this looking like the hero.

I set my phone down on the desk.

"Keep the lab report under wraps," I told Martin. "Don't let anyone release it."

He looked at me in surprise. "But if we don't release it now and explain what happened—"

"If we release it now, the Department of Health will bury the truth under a hundred different official statements. We need to wait until the attention dies down."

I thought for a moment before adding, "Our food is gone, and tens of thousands of people in the disaster zone still need to eat. The emergency management office will have to place an emergency order for replacement meals."

I met his eyes. "Find out who got the contract."

Martin's expression changed. He'd been in the industry for more than a decade. He knew exactly what I was getting at.

The next day, a major news outlet published an exclusive interview titled "Frontline Hero: Saving Disaster Victims from Tainted Food".

In the video, Shirley wore a windbreaker. She was standing right in front of one of my company's trucks, carrying our seized shipment. Her eyes were red, and her voice cracked with emotion.

"Some people say I overstepped and cost someone their livelihood. But I'm a reporter. My job is to uncover the truth. I'd rather throw out 30,000 questionable meals than risk feeding these people contaminated food!"

The comments section immediately hailed her as a "beacon of justice". Meanwhile, our company account was flooded with death threats, with thousands of people calling us ruthless corporate monsters.

Scrolling through my feed, I saw that Jack had shared the interview. He added a short caption: "Stand strong under pressure. Hold the line."

I stared at those words for a long time. A dull, suffocating pain settled in my chest.

His idea of holding the line meant destroying my company just to make someone else look like a hero.

At 3:00 pm, my phone rang.

It was Darren Emmett, a friend who was with the rescue team on the ground in the disaster zone.

I answered the call, and Darren's hoarse, frantic voice came through the phone. "Nora, what happened to the food you sent us?" He was breathing hard.

"The emergency management office sent us replacement self-heating meals, but the meat smells sour and rotten. Some of the victims have already thrown up after eating them!"