Chapter 16
Nicole’s POV
The twins were quiet on the walk home, which with Maple usually meant he was thinking hard about something.
It didn’t take long.
“Mummy,” he said, tugging my hand, “why did Rosy want that old book anyway? It was really big and boring looking.”
“It wasn’t boring,” Rosy said, without looking up from where she was carefully stepping over every crack in the path. “It had pictures.”
“Pictures of what?”
“Packs, old ones. With maps.”
Maple considered this. “Why do you want maps of old packs?”
Rosy finally looked up. “Because I want to be a scientist like Mummy and help people,” she said, with the calm certainty of someone who had already decided this years ago and didn’t understand why it needed explaining.” Scientists need to know things.”
I felt something warm move through my chest as I squeezed both their hands and kept walking.
I had started this research because of people like Parkville’s. Because of every wolf who had lost their mate and been left to deteriorate in silence while the pack looked away.
That was why I had fought for funding in three consecutive cycles and rewritten the methodology twice and spent years tracking down patients who kept saying no.
Rosy wanted to be a scientist to help people.
“You’ll be a wonderful scientist,” I said.
Rosy nodded, satisfied. Maple looked like he was considering whether science was something he wanted to compete with her on, then appeared to decide it wasn’t worth it.
By the time we got home I had made my decision, though truthfully it had been made before we left the library.
I sat the twins down with their afternoon snack and called Marlon.
“Tell them yes,” I said, when he picked up. “Tracy Caesar goes on the list.”
A short pause. “You’re sure.”
“I’m sure. But Marlon – I need contracts. Proper ones. Non-disclosure, non-interference, no dropping out midway without written medical justification. If they come into this project they follow the protocol exactly like every other participant. No exceptions because of who they are.”
“I’ll have the legal team draft them tonight,” he said.
“Good.” I watched Maple carefully separate his apple slices by size, largest to smallest, which was something he had started doing recently for reasons he had not explained. “And I want it in writing that I only appear when the protocol specifically requires my presence, but you handle everything else.”
“Understood.”
1/3
+25 Bonus
“They will sign tomorrow,” I said. “Before anything starts.”
I hung up and stood in the kitchen for a moment, looking at nothing in particular.
Then I went to the bathroom, opened the cabinet under the sink, and took out the box I had been keeping there for weeks. The hair bleach. I had bought it the day after the ball, when I had come home from the terrace and stood in front of the mirror for a long time thinking about those brown eyes.
My hair was blonde. Always had been. It was also, apparently, memorable enough that a man I had danced with for five minutes in a dark ballroom had begun asking questions about me thereafter, if Marlon’s intelligence was accurate. I wasn’t taking chances..
I set everything up on the bathroom counter and called toward the hallway. “Rosy. Maple. Do you want to help Mummy do something?”
They appeared in the doorway within seconds, Maple still holding an apple slice.
“What are we doing?” he asked.
“I’m changing my hair color for work,” I said. “I need someone to make sure I don’t miss any spots at the back.”
Rosy examined the box with serious attention. “What color?”
“Light, almost white.”
She nodded slowly, “Okay.”
What followed was forty minutes of Maple providing running commentary on the smell, Rosy checking the back of my head every five minutes with focused intensity, and both of them debating whether I would look like the moon or like snow. By the time I rinsed it out they had reached a verdict of the moon, which Rosy said was better.
I looked at myself in the mirror. The color was lighter than my natural blonde, almost platinum, and with my mask it would read completely differently. Good.
“You look different,” Maple said, studying me.
“That’s the idea,” I said.
“I like it,” Rosy said simply, and went back to her book.
I dried my hair and made a list. Two hundred medical masks with good quality, a new set of frames for the prescription lenses, different shapes from my usual ones. Colored contacts, green, which would shift my hazel
eyes.
I sent the list to Amber with a message asking her to order everything through the institute’s supply account and mark it as lab materials.
Her reply came back in four minutes.
Already on it. The contacts will take two days. Masks arrive tomorrow morning. Also I left the Aldridge summary on your desk – Parkville said Thursday but I think he meant Wednesday. You know how he is.
I smiled despite myself and put the phone down.
Maple appeared at my elbow. “Mummy, can we have pasta tonight.”
“May we,” I said.
2/3
+25 Bonus
“May we have pasta tonight.”
“Yes,” I said. “Go wash your hands.”
He disappeared. Rosy looked up from her corner of the couch. “I already washed mine,” she said.
“I know,” I said. “You’re very responsible.”
She considered this, then went back to her book, which I was fairly certain was still the pack history volume she had somehow carried all the way home from the library without anyone noticing.
I stood in the kitchen and started the water boiling and tried not to think about tomorrow.
By nine that evening, Marlon messaged to say all three participants had confirmed. They would come to sign the contracts in the morning.
Comments
Support
Share
3/3
+25 Bonus
