Chapters (54)
- Cover
- Epigraph
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Epilogue
- A Note from the Author
- Discussion Questions
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Acclaim for David Rawlings
- Also by David Rawlings
The driver behind him leaned on his horn. It was time to move.
But Daniel was going nowhere.
Eighteen
Kelly nestled into the sofa cushions in the living room she loved, her phone to her ear, her tablet teetering on her knees. Her finger flicked the news story up and down, down and up, its screaming headline burned not into the screen but into her conscience.
Dozens of children hooked up to ECG machines because of medication. The story didn’t mention Rubicon Pharma. It didn’t need to.
“I can’t be a part of this anymore, Jasmine.”
Jasmine’s response didn’t even register. Kelly’s eyes drifted from the pebbles stacked in the glass vase that matched the lampshades she’d spent hours selecting to the whitewash of the cabinets to the flowers daubing color around the room. The expanse of the kitchen, its marble counter not a work surface but a palette for a caterer. She couldn’t lose this place. Until Daniel’s second book came out, they could cut some financial corners. Sell her car. Reduce the budget somehow. Just for a few months.
“—and then we’ll find out there were never any problems.”
“I wish I had your confidence, Jas. Every time I hear Gascon explain all this away, I’m more convinced Mendacium is dangerous.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way, but I’ll keep going until I hear we’ve got a serious problem with it. Ignorance is bliss and all that.”
“The saying I can’t get out of my head is that ignorance is no excuse.” She couldn’t afford for this to eat away at her until she had nothing left.
An extra beat of silence came from Jasmine’s end of the conversation, pregnant with intent.
“What?”
“You know I love you, but if you were so hot on ignorance, you wouldn’t be pretending your husband isn’t replacing you with his receptionist.”
Her suspicions had been all but confirmed at the dinner when Daniel’s words claimed there was nothing to worry about and yet the corners of Monique’s lacquered lips said otherwise. Her self-esteem leaped forward and mugged her. Daniel was stringing along a younger version of her at his work. She had tried hard—for herself, for her employer, and for her husband—to look like the woman she’d once been, but the weight kept creeping back, the lines on her face first appearing and then deepening.
“Kel, remember what I said about leaving him? Maybe now’s the time to play that card.”