Chapter 4 - The Golden Child's Tears
Three days after the boardroom disaster, Bennett Biotherapeutics was in absolute freefall.
Apex Ventures had officially withdrawn its thirty-million-dollar funding offer, citing intellectual property instability. Two other major institutional investors followed suit by Thursday morning, demanding immediate audits of the company’s books. The stock price of Bennett’s minor public subsidiary plummeted by forty percent in forty-eight hours.
I was sitting in the executive library of my new private lab facility in Cambridge, watching the stock ticker on my laptop, when my personal assistant announced a visitor.
It was Lily.
She stepped into my sleek, glass-walled office wearing a designer trench coat, her eyes swollen and red from crying. She looked fragile, tiny, and completely out of her depth—the exact image she had cultivated for twenty years to make everyone around her jump to her rescue.
"Emily," she sobbed, holding a damp tissue in her trembling hands. "Please... please talk to me."
I didn't stand up from my desk. I didn't offer her a seat. "How did you get into this facility, Lily?"
"I asked the security guard downstairs," she whimpered, taking a slow step forward. "I told him I was your sister. He let me up."
"I'll have to remind security about strict access protocols," I said, making a quick note on my notepad. "What do you want, Lily?"
"You're destroying Dad," Lily cried, the tears spilling over her mascara-stained cheeks. "He hasn't slept in three days! His blood pressure is dangerously high! Mom is crying constantly, and Ethan... Ethan is losing his mind!"
"And how is your wedding planning going?" I asked politely, leaning back in my chair.
Lily flinched as if I had slapped her. "Emily, I came to apologize! I know what Ethan and I did was wrong! We should have been honest with you months ago! But... but love isn't something you can control!"
"Love?" I let out a low, dry laugh. "Lily, Ethan doesn't love you. He loves the Bennett name, he loves the country-club connections, and most of all, he loved the fact that marrying into our family gave him free access to my research."
"That's not true!" Lily yelled, her fragile act slipping for a brief second, revealing a flash of ugly entitlement. "Ethan cares about me! He told me I make him feel like a man, not just a business partner! You were always so busy in your lab, Emily! You never made time for him!"
"I was in the lab building the company that funded your five-thousand-dollar-a-month shopping habit, Lily," I said, my voice dropping an octave, cold and precise. "I was in the lab paying off the credit card debt you ran up during your third gap year in Paris."
Lily stepped back, her jaw trembling. "You... you think you're so superior just because you're smart! But Mom and Dad never loved you the way they love me! You were always just their little worker bee!"
The room went completely still.
The word hung in the air between us like poison. Worker bee.
"Thank you for your honesty, Lily," I said softly, standing up from my chair. "For twenty years, Mom and Dad told me that I had to give up my clothes, my bedroom, my time, and my happiness because you were fragile. Because you were damaged. But you aren't fragile at all, are you? You're just selfish."
"Emily, please..." Lily started, suddenly realizing she had pushed too far. She reached out toward my hand. "Don't do this to us. Dad said if you don't return the research by Friday, the bank is going to call in the mortgage on the main house! They used the house as collateral for the lab expansion!"
I looked at my younger sister, feeling a profound sense of relief. The last lingering thread of familial obligation snapped cleanly inside my chest.
"Then I suggest you sell your designer handbags, Lily," I said quietly. "Because I am not saving you this time."
I pressed the intercom button on my desk. "Security, please escort Miss Bennett off the premises immediately. She is permanently barred from entering the building."
Two heavy-set security guards walked into the office a moment later, stepping firmly between Lily and my desk.
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"Emily! You monster!" Lily shrieked as the guards gently guided her toward the glass doors. "We are your family! You can't just leave us with nothing!"
"I didn't leave you with nothing, Lily," I said as the doors began to slide shut. "I left you with Ethan."
