Chapter 2

By the time I pushed through the pharmacy's double doors, I had wrestled my breathing back under control, but a fine tremor still ran through my hands, a persistent reminder of what had happened. 

The familiar scent of antiseptic and powdered latex filled my lungs, a grounding aroma after the cloying cologne of Carter's office. Maya looked up from behind the counter, a stack of prescription forms in one hand and a ceramic mug of coffee in the other, but the moment our eyes met, her professional smile faltered. She saw right through the mask I was trying to wear.

"Ivy, what happened?" she asked quietly, her voice barely a murmur above the hum of the fluorescent lights. She set the forms down with a soft thud, her full attention on me. "Nothing," I said, forcing my feet to carry me toward my workstation, each step feeling stiff and unnatural. 

"I just need a minute." Maya didn't believe me. She rarely did when I gave her an answer like that, but she also knew me well enough not to push when I wasn't ready to talk. She slid the coffee toward me instead, the steam curling up in a delicate plume. "Drink this before it gets cold."

I gave her a grateful look and wrapped both hands around the warm ceramic, letting the heat seep into my cold fingers. "Thanks." 

She watched me for another second, her gaze weighing and knowing, before she returned to the prescriptions. "Carter called for you twice." My stomach tightened into a painful knot. 

"What did he want again?"I asked and the bile which had already settled began to rise again. 

"Probably to make your morning worse," she muttered, then glanced toward the consultation room before lowering her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "I told him you were with a patient." 

I looked at her, surprised. "You lied for me?" 

A wry smile touched her lips. "I prefer the term 'protected your peace.'" She shrugged, but the concern in her eyes remained, a steady anchor in the storm of my morning. "You're welcome."

A small, genuine smile escaped me despite the turmoil churning inside. "You're impossible."

"And you're terrible at pretending you're fine," she shot back softly. Before I could answer, the pharmacy phone rang, its sharp trill slicing through our quiet exchange. Maya picked it up, and I turned toward the prescription queue, grateful for the distraction. 

There were still patients waiting, medications to verify, calls to return, and enough paperwork to keep me occupied for the rest of the afternoon.

For the next hour, I managed to lose myself in the rhythmic, almost meditative flow of the work. A patient needed clarification about the dosage on her prescription, another wanted to know whether a medication could be taken with food, and one elderly man spent nearly ten minutes searching through his wallet before finally finding the exact amount he needed. 

None of it was unusual, and that was precisely what I needed. 

Normal questions, normal problems, things I knew how to solve and by late afternoon, the tightness in my chest had eased enough for me to breathe without thinking about it, the phantom weight of Carter's hand receding to a dull throb in the back of my mind.

I was checking a prescription against the doctor's notes when one of the pharmacy assistants, a young woman named Chloe, approached my station with a small paper bag. "Ivy, can you verify this before I send it upstairs?" "Sure." I took the bag and glanced at the label. 

My eyes stopped on the name, Sebastian Kane. 

I had seen his name often enough around the company that it didn't surprise me, even people who had never met him knew who he was.

Sebastian Kane was the heir to Kane Pharma, the only son of the Kane family, and the man whose life had changed after an attack that had left him unconscious. People talked about him constantly and some said he had been unlucky. Others whispered that the attack had something to do with the company and there were even rumors that his family knew more about what had happened than they were telling anyone. 

I had never cared enough to ask which version was true. I looked down at the medication again and something wasn't right. I checked the prescription against the label, then checked it a second time. "This isn't his." Chloe's eyebrows lifted. "What?" 

"The name is wrong." I turned the bag toward her. "The prescription is for someone else." 

Her face paled slightly. "Are you sure?" "I'm sure." She took the bag from me and checked it herself before letting out a relieved breath. "Oh. You're right." 

"That's why we verify everything before it leaves the pharmacy." 

"I know." She gave me an embarrassed smile. 

"I'll fix it." I nodded and returned to the prescription in front of me.