The Price Of Scandal(91)

My cell phone and desk phones rang simultaneously. Derek was calling my cell.

“Hey, how are you?” I asked.

“Emily.” The tension in his voice on that one word, my name.

“What is it?”

Jane burst through my office door, Valerie and Easton were hot on her heels. She looked pissed. My assistants looked nauseated.

“I’m emailing you an article,” Derek said tersely.

Subject: Emergency.





With dread oozing into my intestines, I opened the message.

Flawless ‘miracle’ scar treatment a flawed disaster.





“What the hell is this?” I asked, skimming the article. Nina.

“There are others,” he said.

“Where is this coming from? Why is my subject from the trial telling the press she was scarred by the treatment?” I demanded. I was a volcano nearing eruption. Nina, the bubbly girl who’d taken two dozen selfies after the biobandages came off, was now saying my scar treatment had permanently disfigured her.

“I’m going to find that out,” Derek said.

“Who do you want me to stun gun?” Jane asked.

“Call me as soon as you know something,” I told Derek.

“I will. She’s not going to win, Emily,” he promised.

I didn’t have time to ask what he meant by that because my desk phone was ringing.

I disconnected with Derek. “Get me Nina, now,” I told the hovering assistants.

“Already dialing,” Valerie assured me as she hustled out of the room.

“Hey, Luna. I’m in the middle of a crisis—” I began.

“La Sophia has your formula,” she said breathlessly into the phone.

“What? What formula?” I clutched my phone tighter.

“I’ve got a distributor who works with my line and a La Sophia line. He let it slip that La Sophia was rushing a scar treatment through to market,” Luna said, the words spilling out of her mouth in a torrent. “So of course I got curious. No one keeps a secret that well in this business. I knew about their CC cream when it was just days into development back in 2016. They just launched it last fall.”

I held onto my sanity by my fingernails. Luna’s storytelling was often ethereal and disjointed.

“Anyway, I have a friendly source in their marketing department that I’ve been trying to woo onto my team. I’m totally digressing, but I’m so pissed off that I can’t think straight.”

“What are you saying, Moon?” I asked, feeling something prickle at the back of my neck.

“Bottom line is someone came to them with your formula and offered to sell it to them. I don’t know if the deal is done or not.”

Damn it. The patent. Where were we with it? Could I fight this?

It didn’t matter. I would fight this. This was corporate espionage.

Anger woke in me like a sleeping dragon.

Someone had stolen from me, from my team, my staff. From the families of my employees, and I would make them pay.

“Who was it?” I asked, my voice low and controlled while my anger set off fireworks in my head.

“My girl didn’t know, but she was so ethically horrified she put in her two weeks and is coming on board with Wild Heart next month. So yay for me. She heard through the rumor mill that they’re making room for some big executive. It’s not a done deal, but there’ve been a bunch of hush-hush meetings.”

Something rang mystically on her end of the call.

“Is that a gong?” I asked, surprised my brain had room for anything other than white hot anger.

“Yes, I’m shopping for a new one for my living room.”

Of course she was. Because Luna was the type who had a gong in her living room and the type who wore out the gongs in her living room.

“I need to go, Luna,” I said. The anger was clawing its way up my throat looking for a way out. “Thank you for letting me know.”

“I’ll chant for you tonight,” she promised.

She would, and in some weird way, I’d probably feel the good vibes.

“Thanks, Moon.”

The phone was still in my hand when my door burst open. Lita whirled in like a hurricane. “Emily, I feel sick about this. I can explain everything.”

“Hang on,” I said wearily. “Valerie? Any luck?”

“The number we had for her on file is disconnected. I’ll see if I can find her home address,” she called back from her desk.

“Jane, help her,” I said.

Jane eyed Lita before leaving the room.

“Emily, this is… I just don’t know how to say this.” Lita wrung her hands. “So I’m just going to say it. You and I have something that no man could ever come between.”

“Lita, what are you talking about? Easton, get Jenny from legal on the line now. I need to know where we are with that patent,” I yelled.

“Derek,” Lita said expectantly.

“What about Derek?”

Her hands fluttered to her mouth. “Oh, God. You don’t know. You haven’t seen it.” Her bottom lip, painted a flawless red, quivered.

“Seen what? I’m a little busy trying to squash some corporate espionage.” It was harsh. I was harsh. But I didn’t have time for her dramatics.