Rage

Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

T he following days are a blur of jump scares, nail-biting, and tension. I notice unfamiliar faces lingering near my building, cars that seem to follow me. Every small noise has my nerves frayed. My apartment feels like a prison, the walls closing in.

Mark calls with bad news. “Zenith’s legal team is threatening to sue if we publish. The board is pulling the story.”

“What? They can’t do that!”

“Money talks, Wynter. I’m sorry.”

Frustration and helplessness wash over me. “So that’s it? They get away with it?”

“Maybe there’s another way,” he suggests gently. “But you need to lay low for now.”

I hang up, seething. Just then, a knock sounds at my door. Peering through the peephole, I see Mia’s worried face.

I open the door, pulling her inside. “What are you doing here?”

“I’ve been trying to reach you. Are you avoiding me?” she asks, concern etched on her features.

“I’ve just been…dealing with some things.”

She notices the scattered papers and my disheveled state. “Wynter, what’s going on?”

I hesitate, then decide she deserves to know. I explain everything—the investigation, the threats, Romello’s involvement.

Her eyes widen. “This is serious. You need to go to the authorities.”

“I don’t have enough solid evidence. And besides, they might be in Zenith’s pocket.”

She grips my hands tightly. “Then we need to find a way to expose them.”

A surge of gratitude fills me. “Thank you.”

“Always,” she replies softly.

Just then, her phone buzzes. She glances at it, her face paling. “It’s the clinic. They said there are complications with the trial.”

“What? I thought you agreed to hold off.”

She looks away guiltily. “I didn’t want to wait. I’m sorry.”

“What kind of complications? Are you okay? Do you feel sick…pain…where does it hurt?” I rapidly fire questions at her in hopes of an answer to each one.

“I don’t think so. I just haven’t been very hungry.”

Fear knots in my stomach. “We need to get you to the hospital.”

“It’s not like that, I’ll be fine. They just need to see me up at the clinic.”

“You had better be all right, if they did anything to hurt you…so help me.”

I knew that they were suppressing this new drug, but now to have rushed another trial; someone had to be bought off. They better not be putting women’s lives in danger because they need to hide this drug! There is no way that I have all of the information yet.

“I’ll be all right. They wouldn’t have put these meds out to trials if they were seriously hurting people.”

“Mia, that’s exactly what they would do. They gave you a list of possible side effects before you signed off, right?”

“Well yeah, but…I didn’t actually read the whole packet, I basically skimmed it.”

Everything inside of me wants to scream at her for being so careless. But I don’t, I just hold out my hands and wait for her to come closer. I really need a hug right now.

“If anything ever happened to you I’d be beside myself. Please go to the hospital right away, and you’d better call me when you leave.”

“I will, Wynter. I love you too.”

We held that hug a beat longer than usual. Something inside me was still so scared that she wouldn’t be okay. That this new mystery drug was far worse than anyone was letting on, I can feel it in my bones.

“I’ll be fine, I just need to go to the clinic, not the hospital. I’m sure it’s nothing but paperwork or something silly.”

“You call me the minute you’re done.”