Page 18 of Seal My Fate

Wren looks stunned. “They got to her, too.”

I open my mouth to argue it was drunk driving, a tragic accident, but then I pause. Chilled to the bone.

How do I know that for sure?

I remember the conversations I overheard, snatches in his hospital room.

“My father was paying her, off the books,” I tell them. “She was threatening to reveal something. I thought it was an affair, but maybe it was blackmail instead.”

If Valerie was blackmailing my dad, threatening to reveal the truth about the project… She was a liability. One more obstacle in the way of Ashford’s success.

Just how far would my father go to protect the company, protect the family name?

I sink down in a seat again. I can see from Tessa’s troubled expression that she’s thinking the same thing.

“What do we do now?” she asks, and it takes me a moment to realize, she’s asking me.

“Evidence,” I reply at last, pulling my shit together. “We need evidence of the trial fraud before we even think about anything else. Wren?”

She shakes her head, looking frustrated. “I don’t have anything. I told you, I reported it to Valerie. My system access was revoked, right after, she said it was a tech mix-up and they’d sort it all out, and then the party happened… When I got back to work, my server access was restricted, but by then, I didn’t care. I had other things on my mind,” she adds grimly. Tessa reaches over and gives her arm a sympathetic squeeze. I’m reminded again of the brutal lengths somebody has been going to in order to cover up this fraud.

Assault, threats, maybe even murder...

What else are these people capable of?

“You need to stay hidden,” I tell Wren. “Right now, you’re the only person who can expose what’s been going on. They need to think you’re still dead.”

She nods, still looking at me with distrust in her eyes. “You keep saying ‘They,’ but you’re one of them, aren’t you?” she challenges me. “You’re a St. Clair. The heir to all of this.”

“Wren—” Tessa speaks up, but I interrupt her.

“Yes, I’m one of them,” I agree. “It’s my family’s name above the door. Which makes me your best chance of uncovering the truth.”

Wren doesn’t like that, I can tell, but even she can see the logic. “You can get the evidence?”

“I can try,” I say grimly. “This original data, the proof you found. Would they still have it?”

“I think so,” she nods. “Data like that, you wouldn’t wipe it. You’d need it to keep modelling similar upgrades to results all the way down the line.”

“Never mind the science,” I shake my head. “Where can I find it?”

Wren pauses.

“It wouldn’t be on the server in Oxford anymore, not after I stumbled over it,” she says slowly, and I can see her brilliant mind at work, running over the possibilities. “Ashford headquarters, here in London,” she decides finally. “The VIP labs, security is as tight as they come. I only visited a couple of times, and even then, they didn’t let me out of their sight. I heard a colleague talk about the backup servers there. That’s where the original trial data will be. Can you get access?” she asks.

I pause. “Probably. I’ve never stepped foot down in the basement before, so it might raise some eyebrows but… We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

Wren nods. “Phillip can help,” she says. “Even just point us to the right server regions.”

“Phillip?” I ask.

“He worked with me on the research team,” Wren replies. “He would be horrified to know they’re misrepresenting the data like this. He’s our way in.”

“He’s a good guy,” Tessa agrees. “And we need him.”

“I don’t know,” I say, reluctant. “We don’t know who else we can trust.”

“I’m not sure I even trust you,” Wren snaps, but I hold her gaze calmly.

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