27. Chapter Twenty-Seven Jade
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Jade
I stood there in the quiet sanctuary of the BioHQ lab, my fingers tight around a pipette as if it were my anchor to sanity.
The steady hum and whirr of machines played background to the chaos unspooling in my head. I couldn’t shake the images from the car—the way Dante’s hands had moved without permission but awakened something dark and wild within me.
“Focus, Jade,” I muttered to myself, trying to drown out the memory of how his eyes had locked onto mine, demanding and fierce as he brought me to the brink. It was a twisted mix of fear and desire, and I hated that part of me craved the intensity of his gaze again. But no, I wouldn’t let Dante Moretti, with his dangerous allure, pull me any deeper into his world of shadows.
I wasn’t going to tell him shit. He had made it clear that sharing my pregnancy with him was not safe.
The sterile lab seemed to glow eerily under the fluorescent lights, highlighting the rows upon rows of samples like soldiers at attention. Data sheets lay scattered, their numbers a comforting puzzle waiting to be solved. I threw myself into the work, each measurement and calculation a lifeline pulling me away from the edge.
“Replicate and confirm,” I muttered to myself as Ellie hummed along with the music coming through the bluetooth speaker, allowing the progress of the experiment to cocoon me from the storm of emotions. The results, neatly plotted on the graph, were a solid proof of my dedication, a temporary shelter from the turmoil Dante had stirred within me.
“Shit,” I breathed out, feeling the nausea rise unexpectedly. Was it the smell of antiseptic or something else? I took a deep breath, moving away from the pipettes.
“You okay, babe?” Ellie said, turning her head to look back at me.
“Still getting over that flu,” I lied. I hated lying to my best friend, but how could I begin to explain all of this when I was pregnant with the child of a man she had literally warned me about?
“I don’t know. You seem distant,” Ellie’s voice cut through the hum of the lab as she turned around, leaning on a bench behind her.
I turned to face her, forcing a smile that felt foreign on my lips. “It’s nothing, Ellie. Just tired, I guess.” The words came out flat, a poor attempt to deflect her probing gaze.
Ellie’s eyes narrowed as she leaned against the bench, studying me with that analytical mind of hers. “You’ve been absent which isn’t like you and your mood swings are noticeable. Something’s definitely wrong,” she pressed, her voice soft but carrying a weight that demanded honesty.
I willed myself not to look away, to give nothing more away. “I’m fine,” I insisted, but my voice lacked conviction. I could tell she didn’t buy it for a second, and a part of me was grateful for her persistence. “I just haven’t been sick in like, years, and it really took it out of me.”
“Headache again?” Ellie asked, tilting her head to the side with a knowing look.
“Must be all this groundbreaking research frying my brain,” I joked weakly, hoping humor would throw her off the scent.
She let out a small chuckle, but her eyes remained latched onto mine.
“Let’s just get back to the experiment, El,” I said, turning my attention back to the pipettes now that the nausea had subsided a little.
Ellie hesitated for a moment, then shrugged and joined me. We worked in silence, the familiar rhythm of our tasks providing a welcome distraction.
But as I pipetted the final sample into place, I couldn’t shake the dread pooling in my stomach. The fear that Dante’s world—the darkness, the violence, the power plays—had infiltrated mine, and there was no going back. Not even the clean lines and precise calculations of my work could offer true sanctuary now.
“Hey, Jade, any word from Rodriguez about his tech integrity investigation?” Ellie’s question pulled me out of my spiraling thoughts.
I shook my head, trying to appear nonchalant. “No idea. You know how tight-lipped they can be about these things.”
“Right,” she agreed, her focus returning to the lab results. “Hey, would you fuck him?”
“Who? Rodriguez?”
“God, no! He’s not my type,” I said with a laugh, shaking my head. The question was innocent enough, a splash of levity to ease the tension that had been steadily building within me. “Wait. Are you saying…”
“I’m just saying this dry spell is rough,” Ellie said. “Last night I had a date with a guy I met online and it went so poorly.”
“Really? I thought you were excited about this one,” I said, momentarily distracted from my own problems. Ellie dates were always full of unexpected twists; they were a welcome break from the usual patterns of work and research.
“Oh, well, you see, he read I was a scientist, and he really wanted to talk about CRISPR.”
“Aw, he was interested in your job,” I said.
She held a hand up. “No, he wasn’t,” she said. “No, he wanted to talk me out of doing my job. Because it turns out his understanding of CRISPR was based solely on some conspiracy video he saw on YouTube. The whole date turned into a lecture about how we’re all going to become genetically modified super humans,” Ellie rolled her eyes dramatically, her hands waving for emphasis.
“Wait, we’re not? Then why do we even do this shit?” I said with a laugh.
Ellie chuckled along, her head shaking in a mix of disbelief and amusement. “Yeah, I certainly spent all those years studying molecular biology just to secretly create a new race of superhumans.”
“I knew it was Youtube that would eventually come for us.”
Our laughter filled the lab, a welcome reprieve from my haunting thoughts. But even amid the waves of levity, I felt a deep sense of foreboding. One I couldn’t shake off, no matter how hard I tried.
Ellie, still basking in our moment of camaraderie, began cleaning up. “I hope the next one isn’t as crazy,” she said, her back turned to me as she started washing the pipettes.
“I hope so too,” I murmured absently, my mind already wandering back to Dante. “Didn’t your last date bring his pet iguana along with him?”
“Okay, in his defense, I told him I liked iguanas,” Ellie defended, triggering another wave of laughter between us. That was the Ellie I loved - the one who could find humor in even the most bizarre situations.
“So why did you ask about Rodriguez?”
“Because he’s weirdly muscular for a tech geek, wouldn’t you agree?”
I shook my head, smiling. “Honestly, I haven’t noticed.”
“Maybe when he’s done being a nuisance, I can ask him if he’s single. You haven’t seen a ring, have you?”
“No,” I replied. I didn’t want to tell her it wasn’t like I had been looking. “But I’ll try to find out if you want.”
“I wouldn’t hate that. In the meantime, I guess it’s back to the grind,” Ellie quipped with a half-hearted chuckle, signaling our return to the hum of machines and the scent of progress that was our daily soundtrack.
But as we approached the incubators housing our latest experiment, a pungent odor snaked through the air. It wasn’t the usual sanitized tang of disinfectants or the sterile nothingness of filtered air; this was different—organic and intrusive. My stomach lurched in protest.
“Ugh, do you smell that?” I frowned, pressing a hand against my abdomen as if to quell the sudden nausea.
“Smell what?” Ellie’s brow furrowed, her nose scrunching as she sniffed the air like a bloodhound on the scent. “I don’t catch anything off.”
“Never mind.” I waved her off, my voice steadier than I felt. Maybe it was just me. But as I stood there, surrounded by beeping equipment and petri dishes lined up like soldiers, a thought slithered into my consciousness, cold and unwelcome.
Could this place, this temple of science and sterility, be a danger to the new life slowly taking root inside me? A shiver ran across my skin—a traitor to my resolve. The idea was absurd, surely. I lived for this work, sacrificed so much for it. But the unease clung to me, a silent question mark etched into the back of my mind.
“Jade?” Ellie’s voice cut through my spiraling thoughts. “You’re looking a bit pale. Everything okay?”
“Fine.” The word tasted of steel, but I forced a smile. “Just a long day. Let’s wrap this up.”
And with that, I turned back to my screen, to the numbers that made sense, the variables I could control. Because in this world of mine, uncertainty was not an option, and fear had no place. Not even the faint shadows of doubt cast by the underbelly of Dante’s world could reach me here.
Or so I desperately wanted to believe.