Page 3 of Married to My Master

“Surprised by what?” Emily said. “By it having this effect?”

“In a sense, yes. They're surprised it was . . . being used in this situation.”

Emily blinked. “What is that supposed to mean, Edward? Are you trying to say that, when asked about the side-effects this patient had, the researchers were surprised because that kind of side-effect had never occurred during the clinical trials?”

“I'm saying,” Edward said, “that there were no completely successful clinical trials done on this class of patient, or for these symptoms.”

They never even experimented with this class of symptoms? Why were the doctors even prescribing it, then? What the hell was going on here?

“Why,” Emily said, her voice low and controlled, “Were doctors prescribing our medication for a different set of parameters than was originally specified, Edward?”

“Because,” Edward said, pausing to again clear his throat, “Our sales teams may suggested, in certain educational meetings with private primary care physicians, that Hymalete had been shown to be useful in that situation.”

“And what situation was that, Edward?”

“Veterans with PTSD.”

Her eyes narrowed, and she had to purse her lips together to keep herself from coming completely unglued. Thank God she'd sent the rest of the executives out for lunch. “And who is this Dane Bishop, again?”

“His brother was Benton Bishop.”

She shook her head. It sounded familiar, like it was just on the tip of her tongue. “Doesn't ring a bell. Enlighten me.”

“He was a decorated Iraq War veteran who murdered his family a little over a year ago.”

She nodded, her eyes locked squarely on Edward's. “Ah,” she said, closing the folder and passing it back to her VP of Sales. “You do realize what this means, right? This means we need to remove Hymalete from the market immediately while we research this.”

Edward shook his head and went to say something. “But, Emily-”

“No, Edward,” she said, her voice coming out as sharp as rapier blade, cutting his words down before the thought could leave his mouth fully formed, “No. Don't. We're going to look at everything, including all of the original uses. We will do it quietly, with no fanfare other than a quiet little press release, and we're going to pray to God and all that's good and holy that the investors don't catch wind of this. Do you understand, Edward?”

Edward was speechless. Clearly, he thought he could somehow skate around this, and everything would come out perfectly, despite what he'd done.

“And then, when I get back from this conference,” Emily continued, “you and I are going to have a long, time-consuming discussion about ethics and good corporate citizenship. Nod once if you understand me, Edward.”

Edward nodded once.

She got up from the conference table and tucked her files and papers beneath an arm. Edward was nearly a foot taller than her, even when she was standing. “We might be on the hook for all sorts of liabilities and exposures on this,” she said as she looked up at him. “I want you to contact legal, and divulge everything off the record with them, so they can start putting a plan together, so we can move forward with damage control. Do you understand? We need to maintain deniability, even though you screwed the pooch on this.”

“Yes ma'am, Ms. West,” he said, nodding.

She could tell that she had him spooked. But, still, there was something off with him, besides that. Something she didn't like.

But there wasn't much she could do about it now; not until legal got finished looking at the situation. Then, after they had what they needed from Edward, BioSphere would have to cut him loose. This kind of malfeasance at the top wouldn't stand, especially not when it opened the company up to this much litigation.

Besides, Emily had an appointment to keep several states away. She was a keynote speaker at one of the biggest conferences of the year, and she had a plane to catch.

Too bad she wasn't going to make it there.

Chapter Two

Emily

“It's always lonely at the top.” That's what her mother, Geraldine West, had told her. Mother had been a Hollywood starlet, and was still tough as nails. She'd had to be, in that industry of snakes and backstabbers.

Anyone who thought a top actress' life was easy, or not fraught with personal and financial dangers, was deluding themselves. Her mother had shown Emily that on plenty of occasions. And, the moment you showed weakness, there was always someone there willing to take advantage of it.

Geraldine had raised her to be hard, driven, and focused, but to still be able to entertain and dazzle.

---