Page 10 of Conspiracies and Chemistry

I’d probably still be miserable on Monday, so I could give the appearance of ceding the field to him. Besides, I had an idea for a side project I could kick off while he was distracted.

“Okay,” I said.

“Okay?”

“I’ll stay out of your way next week. You can come to my office Friday and deliver a progress report. If you’ve made advancements in line with the schedule, I’ll continue to let you run the project without interference. Sound fair?”

I could almost hear him choke on my offer to let him run his own lab. I was no baby-faced company founder anymore. But he was.

“Fine,” he said, his voice gritty as sandpaper.

“Great. See you Friday.” I disconnected the call. I reached over the side of the sofa for my laptop, groaning as the stretch strained my sore muscles. After a quick check of my security cameras, I flipped over to the company’s email program and scheduled a video call for Monday with the lab manager, Yujun. If Oliver didn’t want to work with me, fine. I had a pet project to spin up.

I’d show him who wasreallyin charge.

5

Biomarker

Biomarker:A measurable substance in an organism that indicates a condition such as disease or infection.

OLIVER

“So, Oliver, how is work?”

It was the question I’d been anticipating, and dreading, since we’d sat down at my grandparents’ Thanksgiving table. My grandmother, who’d asked it, turned her sharp gaze on me. Three other heads—my grandfather’s, my mother’s, and my father’s—swiveled to face me.

Snow shushed against the window behind my parents. I could still see the stand of maple trees that lined the front of my grandparents’ property, but the flakes were getting bigger. It gave no signs of stopping anytime soon, which meant I was trapped in Dover, Massachusetts, a town without as much as a bar, tonight. And from the sharp gazes directed at me, I was going to want something stronger than sauvignon blanc.

With the ornate sterling-silver fork, I pushed the dried-out stuffing to the edge of my Wedgwood dinner plate. Faded blue flowers peeked out from under the pool of cranberry sauce.

“It’s going okay, I guess.”

“‘Okay?’” My father’s eyes were blue and wary, like mine. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

I set down my fork. “The new test we’re working on is promising. But I’m getting pressure from the board to speed up development. Which, as you know, creates risk.”

“Risk?” He grimaced. If anyone understood risk, it was my dad, a former executive at a top insurance corporation in Boston. Even in his retirement, he worried about everything from his house’s pipes in winter to the Pats’ quarterback’s rotator cuff. “Is that something you can afford to take on in your business?”

“Exactly!” I leaned back in my chair. Finally, someone understood.

“Can you affordnotto take a risk?” my grandfather said. Before retiring, he’d worked in banking. “No risk, no reward.”

“It’s not just money I work with, Grandfather. It’s people’s health. Their lives.”

“Justmoney?” he and my father said at the same time.

“Without money,” my grandfather said, “there’d be no funds to invest in your laboratory. How would you hire people to develop your products?”

“Without money,” my father said, “how could medical insurers pay for tests and treatments?”

I put up my palms. “I understand money is important. It’s why we brought in investors and a board of directors.” I nodded at my grandfather, who, as one of our first investors, sat on the board. “Their responsibility is fiduciary. My responsibility is the science and the patients. People we can help with our tests.” I glanced at my mother, who’d been uncharacteristically silent. “People like Grandma Vee.”

She pursed her lips. “My mother couldn’t have afforded your tests. She didn’t have health insurance.”

“But if this test is successful, it’ll detect cancers like hers earlier, noninvasively. Cheaply, even,” I argued, glancing at the two financial experts in the room. “It’s a cost-effective way of detecting disease and determining the most efficacious treatment. Insurers will love it. And we’re getting close.” We’d already run the initial assays, and I had some ideas for improving it. If only Tessa would stop riding me about the schedule.

“Impressive,” my father said.

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