24. Carter
24
CARTER
I watched her walk out the door yesterday evening feeling helpless and unable to understand why her mood shifted so suddenly. She’d come crashing into the place after what happened with Rick and Melanie, and all I wanted was to comfort her, which was what I thought I was doing until she walked back out, still in a state of emotional distress.
This morning I woke up alone, feeling the weight of heavy emotion pressing me down. Work was stressful during this flu season. And trying to sniff out the obvious corruption in my own company was trying every bit of patience I had. Now fear mingled with all of it, convincing me that Rick was going to tell Sunny the secret I should’ve told her the minute I found anything out. Living a life of anonymity had benefits until things like this happened.
I forced myself out of bed, reading a message that Joseph had the contracts ready. Peters and Wilkinson were set to meet with us in just over an hour to sign them and give up the names of the people within the company responsible for paying doctors to pressure high-risk people into the trials. I should’ve been relieved to have this information, but my mind could only focus on one thing at a time.
More immediate than my risk of public shame over a potential scandal with the company was my fear that Sunny would be hurt by all of this. That somehow, she would blame me personally for what happened and never want to speak to me again. It felt selfish to fear her leaving me when in reality she had every right to be furious with me for not telling her about things up front. It just hurt so badly knowing she could walk away the way my ex did and never look back.
I showered, forced myself to eat a slice of toast and drink a glass of orange juice, then headed into the office to meet with Joseph and the doctors. I was on edge, probably too emotionally amped up to be professional. My mind was clouded with insecurities and anxiety; I drove on autopilot.
At the office, I bypassed reception entirely, choosing the service elevator in the back to avoid as many people as possible. I called Sunny four times, but she never answered. Jackson sent me a message saying Sunny had called in sick again, said she wasn’t feeling well and didn’t want to share germs. By germs , I was sure she meant emotions. She didn’t want to face me, and I didn’t blame her. I assumed Rick had said something, and it was only a matter of time before she pulled the plug on us.
Joseph saw me coming from the opposite direction as normal and offered a confused, narrowed-eyed expression. “Everything okay?” he asked. I grumbled a nonword in response and followed him into the conference room where Peters and Wilkinson sat at the table with cups of coffee in hand.
“So gentlemen, are we ready?” Joseph produced a manilla file folder out of the briefcase situated on the table and slid the folder across to them.
“As long as the contract is good,” Wilkinson said, opening the file folder.
I sat with Joseph across the table, gripping the arms of the rolling chair. My interest in these two was minimal now. They were pawns; we had bigger fish to fry. If we played our cards right, we were days from shutting this whole thing down.
Wilkinson signed first then passed it to shifty-eyed Peters, who sat for at least ten minutes reading over the contract. While he pored over it, I turned to Joseph and scowled at him. This was just the tip of the iceberg as far as malpractice within the company went. We needed to do a complete audit of company policy and standard operating procedure for trials.
“Have you had a chance to look into our Tampa branch and find out what went wrong there?” I could never give Sunny her friend back, but I could help ease her mind and put her worries to rest by following up with what happened and fixing it, so it never happened again.
“Not yet, but I will.” Joseph didn’t look at me as he spoke. He sat with squared shoulders watching as Peters finally signed the contract.
“You can’t just brush this aside. As CEO you’re responsible for what happens in this company.” I felt my temper rising, forced higher not by my actual anger at him but due to the unresolved emotions I carried about Sunny. Why hadn’t she answered my calls? What was going on in her mind? She went home, back to Rick’s house, and how could I know if he’d told her about me owning GenOne?
“I understand,” Joseph said, turning to glare at me as Peters shut the file folder and slid it across the table. His expression was stern and dark, like he was sending me a message I didn’t care to receive.
“I don’t think you do. A woman died because of our failure, and that should never happen.” Hot under the collar didn’t begin to describe how I felt. I was a starving, caged animal, and my prey was right in front of me.
“I do, Dr. Price, and I’m taking care of it.” Ignoring my anger, he leaned forward and collected the contracts, peeked at them to make sure they were signed, and turned toward the doctors and said, “Now, would you like to provide us with the information we requested? We need names, gentlemen.”
I chewed the inside of my lower lip in a rage, wanting to bite his head off. I wasn’t thinking clearly at all. Everything in me felt obsessed with getting to Sunny, finding out what she knew, and pleading with her to understand my situation. I didn’t ask for my father to dump this entire thing into my lap. I should’ve sold it years ago, but the profits from GenOne funded dozens of clinics all over this city and the state of California.
“You deal with this, and deal with it now.” I stood, tucking my tie into my jacket and buttoning it. I couldn’t sit here anymore and try to pretend I was okay. Joseph was more than capable of fixing this and if he didn’t, I’d have the board vote him out.
“Carter, please…” Joseph looked up at me, still annoyed, and I turned to walk out.
“Finish this, Joseph, or I will.” My threat hit him, turning his glower into a glare, and I left the conference room in a huff. I was irrational and out of control, and the only thing that would help me settle was to speak to Sunny. Never in my life had the fear of the future been so large in my mind that I had a hard time grounding myself.
It felt like I was spiraling again, the way I did when Hope died, and I couldn’t let that happen. I needed to talk to her.