Chapter 5 - A Ghost From the Past
Marcus Vance stood frozen, his mind spinning. Sarah Jenkins hadn't just been any employee at Vance Pharmaceuticals; she had been his lead research scientist ten years ago. She was a brilliant mind, a pioneer in neurological treatments. But she had been fired in disgrace, accused of embezzling research funds and stealing proprietary data.
"Sarah, what happened to you?" Marcus asked, stepping forward. "You vanished. The board said you fled the country after you stole the blueprints for the neuro-stimulator."
Sarah let out a bitter, rattling laugh that ended in a cough. "Stole it? I invented it, Marcus. I invented the very device that's sitting in your daughter’s chest right now."
Marcus felt the room tilt. "What are you talking about? Arthur presented the prototype. He said you tried to sell it to our competitors."
"Arthur lied!" Sarah gasped, clutching her chest. "Arthur discovered that the first generation of the device had a fatal flaw. The battery casing was prone to leaking under specific atmospheric pressures. I wanted to recall it. I wanted to fix it. Arthur knew a recall would tank the company's IPO. He framed me, locked me out of the lab, and threatened to have me imprisoned if I ever spoke up."
Marcus was horrified. Arthur was his Vice President, his most trusted confidant.
May you like
"Because of my ruined reputation, no one would hire me," Sarah wept. "I lost everything. And when my own daughter—Leo's sister—developed the illness, she received the very device I warned Arthur about. It failed, Marcus. The battery leaked. It killed her."
Marcus looked down at Leo. The boy who had just saved his daughter was the son of the woman his company had destroyed.
