Chapter 3

The next morning.

I went to Crestview Medical Center as Graham had instructed.

I didn't go to the billing office. Instead, I walked straight up to the VIP ward on the top floor.

Lily was propped up against the pillows, eating imported Shine Muscat grapes.

Two young nurses hovered around her, fawning over "Dr. Forsythe's wife" with every other breath.

When I pushed the door open.

Lily instantly dropped the pampered expression. She waved the nurses away.

The moment the door clicked shut.

Every trace of fragility vanished from her face, replaced by undisguised provocation.

"Serena, you came."

She rubbed her belly, grinning like the cat that got the cream.

"Graham's at a conference. He told me to wait here until you finish signing."

I walked over to the bed and dropped the clinical trial family consent form onto her blanket.

"I can sign."

I looked down at her.

"But I sponsored you for ten years. Does your conscience not bother you at all?"

Lily let out a derisive snort.

She spat out a grape seed with deliberate slowness, her eyes full of venomous jealousy.

"Conscience? Serena, spare me the savior act."

"You sponsored me to feed your own ego, to feel superior."

"All you do is go to work and stare at a computer screen. You live like a robot. Graham got sick of you ages ago!"

"He told me I'm the only one who makes him feel like a man -- like he's actually needed!"

Her words were like venom dripping from a serpent's tongue.

But I felt no anger whatsoever. Getting worked up over an ingrate this rotten to the core would only drag me down to her level.

"Are you done?"

I took a pen from my bag and uncapped it.

Just then, Lily's gaze fell on the open tote bag.

Inside sat an exquisitely crafted temperature-controlled specimen case, wrapped in velvet.

It held the final-iteration prototype sample of the Starlight targeted therapy -- the one I'd brought from the lab just last night.

It was the result of five years of my life. A one-of-a-kind formulation I'd designed specifically to counter the genetic mutation behind her condition.

Lily's eyes lit up.

She didn't understand medicine, but she recognized the top-secret classification seal from Crestview Medical Center printed on that case.

"What's that?"

She lunged forward and snatched the specimen case right out of my bag.

"Give it back!" I snapped, reaching for it.

But Lily recoiled like a woman possessed, clutching it away from me.

"This is the drug for me, isn't it!"

"Graham said once I get the new drug, I'll be completely cured!"

She hugged the case to her chest, eyes blazing with frenzied greed.

In the struggle, a flash of calculated malice crossed her face. Her fingers deliberately slipped.

CRASH --

The specimen case -- worth millions, the product of years of my life -- slammed into the hard marble floor.

Glass shattered.

The blue serum spilled across the ground and oxidized instantly into a glaring black. Completely destroyed.

The room fell into a silence like death.