Page 51 of The Moral Dilemma

“I’m not sure. He probably wants to change some of the formula so it’s lighter. But even so. It’s still the most addictive drug I’ve ever seen. Even taken once and you start craving it like your life depends on it.”

twelve

Noelle couldn’t sleepthat night. At that point it must have been over twenty-four hours since she’d last gotten some sleep, and her anxiety kept mounting. She waited until she was once more given green light to enter the drug facility. Her sole purpose was to check that her Blue was fine.

According to the footage she’d reviewed from the hacienda, it had been a few days since he’d been taken to the facility—from the moment she’d left. She was convinced that had been Sergio’s purpose all along. Yet even as she feared that he’d discovered who Raf was to her, she was even more afraid of what had happened to her beloved in her absence.

“Please be fine, Raf,” she whispered all the way to the facility.

He needed to be alright, otherwise the world would taste her anger. At that moment, she would discard any feeling of self-preservation she might have and she would take anyone who’d touched Raf to her grave with her.

When she arrived at the facility, the guard gave her a once over, but he allowed her inside.

“I want a report of everything that has happened in my absence,” she commanded in a stern voice, heading straight to her office. There, she had access to the surveillance feed in the subject rooms and she could get a clearer picture of how Raf was doing.

Her first instinct was to storm over to him, but she needed to temper herself. Anything she did might raise suspicions, so she needed to tread lightly.

One of the workers knocked on her door, handing her the full report she’d requested.

She perused it, noting the adjustments Sergio had made to the drug and to whom he’d administered it.

There were fourteen test subjects at that point at the facility, and as she trailed her finger down the list, stopping on Raf’s name.

“God, no,” she whispered.

Dropping the file on her desk, she opened her computer, finding his room and accessing the video feed there.

All the rooms for the test subjects were the same. White, desolate. There was a bed in the room, a shower and a toilet in a corner that didn’t allow for any privacy, and a table with a chair. Raf was in the middle of the room, pacing around, clearly agitated.

Noelle swallowed hard as all her fears suddenly manifested.

She turned to the report, reading more.

Sergio had ordered two batches of the drug to be introduced. One batch was to be mixed with a sedative to keep people in a trance-like state, while the other was mixed with a stimulant to trigger an aggressive state.

Immediately, she knew which drug Raf had been placed on, just as she intuited how Sergio planned to use them. If these weren’t intended for the streets, then they were to be used by private entities for who knows what depraved purposes.

Raf had been placed in the wing close to her office, and though that raised some flags in her mind, she quickly squashed any doubts as she planned how she was going to see him. It would take her a minute to walk to his room.

Gods, but the temptation was too hard to resist.

There was one guard who always monitored the test subjects in case one of them up and died at any moment. She was sure she could bribe him somehow to turn a blind eye to her visits. But before she did anything reckless, she needed to ensure that nothing would get back to Sergio.

Soon, Raf. I’m coming to you soon.

* * *

She spent a few hours going over the business statements regarding the product and making a list of all the changes Sergio had done to the facility.

He was a crafty son of a bitch, she’d give him that. When she’d wanted to get rid of the dangerous formula, he’d simply bid his time waiting for when he could use it.

Noelle’s hands curled into fists as she grinded her jaw in anger.

It wasn’t just that Sergio had gone over her head with the drug formula. It was the fact that sheknewthe devastating effects it could have on the human body. She’d been the one to come up with it after all. And so all the destruction it wreaked could be traced right back to her.

For so long, she’d locked away her guilt, focusing only on her final goal. Yet now, it was all coming back to haunt her. The man she’d tried so hard to protect was the one suffering fromhermistakes. And she hated herself for it.

By the time she was done with her business, she was proud of herself for withstanding the temptation of going to Raf before she could lay everything in order.

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