Page 17 of Enduring Promise

Russ shook his head, his face carefully neutral. “Not that I’m aware of,” he replied evenly, but Hillary could sense the undercurrent of anxiety beneath his calm exterior.

This was exactly the kind of attention they couldn’t afford. She felt her heart thudding and wondered if anyone else could hear it.

The detective gave Russ another long, searching look before finally nodding, as if deciding to let it go for now. “Well,” he said, his tone still clipped, “we’ll continue to work on this and update you with what we find.”

With that, the detective and the fire marshal turned to leave, but not before the detective cast one last look at Russ, his gaze filled with suspicion.

As the door closed behind them, silence fell over the room, thick and oppressive. Claire looked as though she was on the verge of a breakdown, her eyes wide with fear.

Hillary was done waiting. She was done with Claire’s mysterious comments. Russ could have died in that fire. It was time to get answers.

“Claire,” her grandmother said sharply. “You need to go clean yourself up. You look a fright. There are more guests arriving who will be at the celebration tonight, and I don’t want them to see you like this.”

“I’ll take her upstairs,” Hillary said, not waiting for Claire to agree. She took her by the elbow and tugged her to her feet. They headed up in silence, Claire not having the fortitude to protest. They were behind the closed door of Claire’s bedroom before Hillary spoke.

“What the hell is going on?”

“The fire. I think it was a message to scare me.”

“Why?”

“I can’t say.” She shook her head as the tears fell.

“Cut the shit right now.” It was time for some tough love. “I need to know if that fire was a message for you, or for Russ and me. If we aren’t safe here, we need to leave now. Not just for our own protection but for all the innocent people here. Tell me everything. Right now.”

Claire’s face crumpled, the weight of her hidden fears and secrets finally seeming to crash down on her. She sank onto the edge of the bed, pressing her fingers to her temples, her breaths coming in shaky, uneven gasps.

Hillary crossed her arms, waiting, not relenting for even a moment. “I’m not leaving here until you tell me the truth. Everypart of it, Claire. You owe us that much after what happened today.”

With a shuddering breath, Claire looked up, her eyes haunted. “Fine. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Hillary nodded, bracing herself.

“It’s about my lab. We... we’ve been lying about the data we’re providing to the FDA. Falsifying results, inflating numbers of success. Our drug... it’s not as effective as we’ve claimed.” Her voice trembled as she spoke, each word sounding like it was being torn from her.

Hillary felt a chill crawl down her spine. She’d expected something troubling, but this was a level of corruption that went beyond anything she’d imagined. “Why?” she asked, her tone sharp. “What could possibly make you risk everything for falsified data?”

Claire swallowed, hesitating before she continued. “There’s a surgeon we partnered with. Dr. Michael Hale. He’s brilliant, cutting-edge. He developed a procedure that, combined with our pharmaceutical advancements, would revolutionize the current methods of treatment for a range of chronic illnesses. We believed we were on the brink of a breakthrough, something that could change medicine. But things weren’t going as planned.”

Hillary narrowed her eyes. “Tell me more about Dr. Hale. Why does it feel like there’s more to this story?”

Claire’s cheeks flushed, and she looked away, as though ashamed. “We dated, I suppose. Or at least, I thought we had. I don’t know if you could call it that now. It wasn’t exclusive—he made it very clear eventually, though it took me longer to realize than I’d like to admit. And I know how cliché it all sounds. Falling for this high-powered surgeon and letting him take advantage of me.” She let out a bitter laugh. “He had this way of making you feel like you were the only person in the room, thatyou were special, that he needed you to make his vision come true. But I was one of many.”

Hillary raised an eyebrow, sensing the vulnerability beneath Claire’s words. Men like Dr. Hale, charismatic and driven, could easily draw someone in, especially someone like Claire, who seemed to crave purpose and validation she didn’t get from her family. “So, he charmed you, convinced you to join him in this vision of his? What exactly did he need you to do?”

Claire nodded slowly. “He approached me at a gala. He knew everything about our lab, our ongoing trials. He was persuasive, said we could ‘change the world’ together. It was intoxicating—the idea of being part of something monumental. He made it sound like our work could end suffering for millions.” Her voice cracked slightly, the disillusionment clear.

“But then what?” Hillary pressed. “When did you know something was not right?”

“As the trials went on, we realized that the results weren’t as promising as we’d hoped. There were side effects, complications. The drug wasn’t ready, and his procedure was still experimental. But Dr. Hale... he wouldn’t let go. He told me the real problems were the ethics boards and compliance teams. They were corrupt. Targeting him because they didn’t want him to succeed. His method and breakthroughs would cost big pharma too much money in all they had invested in the old ways. He started suggesting ways to ‘tweak’ the data, to only show the best cases. He insisted it was just a minor delay and everything would work itself out, but we needed to keep the funding going. He made it sound like the ends justified the means.”

“And you went along with it?” Hillary’s voice held a note of reproach.

Claire looked down, her expression one of shame. “I believed him. I thought... I thought I was part of something revolutionary and maybe we just needed to buy a little moretime. But the longer it went on, the more trapped I felt. By then, it wasn’t only my lab—it was my reputation, my family name. If this got out, it would ruin everything.”

“You realize how dangerous this is,” Hillary said finally. “If someone set that fire as a message, this is only the beginning. They think you’re going to be a whistle-blower? Why do they think that?”

Claire nodded, her eyes shining with unshed tears. “I tried to break it off with him, to step away. But Dr. Hale doesn’t take rejection well. At first I started putting distance between the two of us. Going out of town. Changing my work schedule and ignoring his calls. I thought maybe he’d move on and I could take a breath and figure out what to do next.”

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