Chapter 2

　　Kay knelt before her father's grave and told him what she had decided.

　　She looked at the mound of earth Silas had dismissed as nothing but dirt, her fingertips trembling.

　　It was true that no one grew attached to a pile of dirt. But beneath that dirt slept the person she thought of day and night.

　　She scattered the last handful of paper offerings before her father's grave.

　　"Dad, once I get back, I'm going to divorce Silas."

　　"And then I'll pour everything into finishing the anti-cancer drug you never got to complete, so more patients can be cured."

　　After paying her respects, she hurried back to Ashford City.

　　The drug she had been developing was nearly finished. All that remained was the final stage, and then she could put a clean end to her life in Ashford City.

　　But the moment she returned to the institute, she found that the drug samples and research materials she had left in her lab were gone.

　　In their place sat a single crisp hundred-dollar bill.

　　At that same moment, a notification suddenly lit up her phone.

　　"Prodigy Rose Pruitt develops anti-cancer drug, lifting the nation's medical research to a new height!"

　　In the video, Rose Pruitt was all smiles.

　　"Thank you all for believing in me. I went abroad to study precisely so I could develop this drug. I even gave up my own boyfriend for it..."

　　A trace of sorrow flickered in her eyes before she put on a magnanimous air.

　　"But I'm glad my sacrifice wasn't wasted. To bring people a drug that truly matters has been my lifelong wish."

　　Rose's lovely face paired with that resolute gaze instantly drew a flood of praise.

　　"Ms. Pruitt is amazing. So young, and she's already developed such an incredible drug, and so selfless too. Truly moving."

　　"Who's this shameless woman who stole Ms. Pruitt's boyfriend? Ms. Pruitt was overseas working hard on this drug, and she used the chance to steal her man. How disgraceful!"

　　"That scumbag can go choke on his regret now that he's seen how remarkable Ms. Pruitt turned out!"

　　Kay's face darkened as she watched Rose in the video.

　　The boyfriend Rose spoke of was her own husband, Silas.

　　Which made her, of course, the shameless woman the commenters were talking about, the one who'd stolen another woman's man.

　　If Rose weren't holding the very drug that had vanished from Kay's lab, she might truly have wanted to sink into the ground right then.

　　Seeing everyone rally behind her, Rose let a smug little smile touch the corner of her mouth.

　　"Please don't lash out at the wrong person. My boyfriend is a good man. He didn't want this either, but that woman's father once saved his father's life, and his father insisted on repaying the debt. There was nothing he could do."

　　At that, the crowd's fury instantly

　　Kay glanced at the empty lab, both fists clenched.

　　This was her private research lab. Aside from her, the only person who knew the code was her former mentor's protégé, now her husband, Silas.

　　She forced down the grief and rage rising in her chest and pulled up the security footage on the computer.

　　Soon Silas's figure appeared before her.

　　He led Rose in, throwing open the door to Kay's lab as if he owned the place.

　　"Rose, come on in."

　　"Kay has been doing her research here. That new drug of hers is almost ready to go public. Even the National Research Institute has been watching her progress."

　　"All you have to do is release the drug first, before she does, and you're guaranteed to become an overnight sensation."

　　A greedy light glittered in Rose's eyes.

　　"Silas, are you really willing to hand it over to me? Kay won't be upset if she finds out, will she?"

　　"And what if she loses it and just exposes me on the spot?"

　　Silas soothed her gently.

　　"Don't worry. I know her computer password. I'll give you all her original files too."

　　"Without the research data, no one will believe her even if she tells the truth."

　　"Besides, she owes you this."

　　"If she hadn't guilt-tripped me back then, holding that life-saving debt over my head, I never would have broken up with you, and you'd never have gone abroad."

　　"It's just one drug. What right does she have to hold it against you?"

　　Rose giggled and kissed Silas on the cheek.

　　"Silas, you're the best to me."

　　Silas looked at Rose's blushing face, and for a moment his eyes seemed to lose focus.

　　But he quickly slipped back into that doting look, turning to help Rose search for Kay's new drug.

　　Kay watched, wide-eyed, as Rose bounced around her lab like she owned it.

　　She not only moved Kay's drug samples wherever she pleased, she also switched off Kay's incubator.

　　The cells Kay had poured her heart into cultivating all died off.

　　And Silas acted as if he saw none of it, indulging Rose's every reckless move.

　　Before long, Silas handed Kay's new drug to Rose.

　　Rose took it, eyes shining with excitement, then her gaze slid sideways and she pulled out a hundred-dollar bill, setting it down where the drug had been.

　　"Consider this Kay's payment for the drug. After all, we can't let her come away with nothing for her trouble."

　　Silas smiled and patted her head.

　　"That's my Rose, always so kind-hearted."

　　Kay stared coldly at the two of them walking off arm in arm, chilled to the very core.

　　More than nine hundred days and nights. More than a thousand trials.

　　She had poured untold energy into developing this drug, and they thought a measly hundred dollars could buy it out from under her.

　　Endless fury churned in Kay's eyes as she forced herself to copy the security footage onto a USB drive.

　　She closed her eyes, and every moment she had shared with Silas flashed through her mind.

　　She had believed the two of them were of one heart. He had never once mentioned Rose in front of her, and he had never refused his father's efforts to bring the two of them together.

　　Even now that Kay knew about Silas and Rose, all she wanted was to leave.

　　But Silas had no right to use her life's work to curry favor with Rose, and even less right to gamble with a drug the whole nation was waiting for.

　　This drug still had one final stage left. One set of data was unstable, and clinical trials hadn't even begun.

　　Rushing it to market like this, weren't they afraid of what might go wrong?

　　Her research wasn't something they could steal so easily.