“Which explains why it’s my job to turn down all media requests except puff pieces about Jon himself,” said Ellen. “I might as well have his mantra tattooed on my forehead: ‘Everyone wants to cure cancer . . .’”
“But nobody thinks about the level of security that requires,” everyone in the room chanted in nearly perfect unison.
“Ross, from a legal standpoint, wouldn’t anyone who was aware of, suppressed, or altered bad data be liable if the truth comes out?” Jessica asked.
“Indeed.”
Another silence, this one longer as each person at the table took inventory of what they knew and when.
Feeling an idea just out of reach, Jessica pushed back her chair and stood up. “So the biggest issue facing us is actually the delivery system?”
“The Revelate concept is technically viable,” confirmed Kate.
“This probably seems glaringly obvious, but what about a time-release capsule?” Holly asked.
Arjun nodded. “A protective coating could keep it from disintegrating until it’s in the GI tract, where the nanoparticles can be absorbed. The limiting factor is that the capsule is too large to be swallowed by a small child.”
Pacing now, Jessica snorted in disbelief. “But adults could easily handle it, as well as teens and even some preteens?”
“We’ve pitched versions of this to Jack before, but he wouldn’t agree to anything that wasn’t flavored and chewable,” said Kate.
“How very like Jack,” Holly said dryly, with a sympathetic glance at Jessica. “To chase the sexy new thing.”
Her phone, which she’d left on the table, began to vibrate, and she grabbed it and stood up. “Please excuse me for a moment.”
“I still can’t get over the fact that Holly Wright was just here,” Marco said as the door clicked closed behind her. “How does that even make sense?”
“Unfortunately, Jon’s lack of ethics extended well beyond the business realm,” Jessica said. “They may have shared a marriage and kids, but they definitely don’t have the same moral compass, and she felt she had to come forward.”
“I feel sorry for her,” Lorna said.
“She’ll be okay,” Jessica said, more sure of it than ever. “I think we all will, assuming we can agree on a slight redefinition of Cancura’s mission.”
There were nods all around.
“But what do we do about Jon?” Arjun asked.
“Trust me, he’s very distracted, and he’ll soon be even more so,” said Jessica. “Focus on your work and act like this meeting never happened. If he asks for a status report, stall him.”
“For how long, exactly?” Ross asked.
“Just hang tight,” she said, smiling for the first time in weeks.
Holly ended her call with Francesco Mancini—her attorney was the one caller she couldn’t afford to send to voice mail—as Jessica came out of the conference room. The realization of what came next left her feeling as though she couldn’t quite get enough air into her lungs.
Jessica looked tired but grimly determined, and as they walked in silence to the elevator, Holly drew strength from her presence. Despite the steely front she’d tried to project in the conference room, she felt ashamed she’d allowed herself to assume for so long that Jack’s lies were confined to his personal relationships.
“What did I miss?” she asked, pushing the down button.
“Just the inevitable aftershocks of basically good people trying to come to terms with some very ugly truths.”
“I’ve been there,” Holly said.
“I’m still there,” Jessica said. “But that meeting gave me a glimmer of hope.”
Holly couldn’t believe it had gone so well. “Knowing Marco as long as I have, I half expected him to run out of the room and drag Jack back in. I’m glad I was wrong. Despite himself, Jack hired good people—including you.”
Jessica nodded and swallowed hard, as if trying not to cry while they stood awkwardly waiting for the elevator door to open. “You do realize what this means to Jon’s reputation? Cancura’s, too.”
“I do,” said Holly, careful not to upset her new ally with a flash of indignance.
Of course she knew. Not an hour had passed without agonized thoughts about what any publicity would do to her children. But if the world deserved to know the truth about Jack, then Ava, Paige, and Logan certainly did, too. They were too old to be shielded from it anyway.
“What about our reputations?” asked Jessica.
“That’s the last thing I’m concerned about, personally. I honestly think you’re going to come out of this very well once the smoke clears. Cancura can still do a lot of good, once Ja—once Jon has been dealt with.”
“Working around Jon worries me the most.”
“At work or at home?”
“Both.” Jessica removed something from her pocket and held it out. “One thing’s for sure: I won’t be wearing this around.”
The diamond ring was stunning and had to have cost ten times the amount of the one Jack had given Holly so long ago. Gently, she folded Jessica’s fingers around it. She didn’t want to see.
“Use me as an excuse,” she said. “You should.”
“I think the elevator is broken,” said Jessica, pressing the down button again.
“This is how it begins,” deadpanned Holly.
Despite the suffocating pressure, they both chuckled and started for the stairs.
The mild weather of the previous day was a distant memory as Chicago’s spring turned vicious. The wind drove Lark into a souvenir store on Michigan Avenue, where she purchased the warmest hat available, a red-and-white Chicago Blackhawks ski hat with a pom-pom on top. She then sheltered in a coffee shop for a hushed phone call with a lawyer, who had already reviewed the paperwork and confirmed that, when it came to Larkspur Games, anyway, Jonathan “Trip” Mitchell Wright III had been on the up-and-up. He stood to benefit from her profits, but she was sole owner of her company—and her destiny.
So.
Feeling more nervous than she liked, she called an Uber to take her the mile or so to Cancura to end their relationship in person.
The four-story brick warehouse was not at all what she’d expected—learning more about his med-tech start-up online had led her to picture something a little more
