“If you do not sign off on that release, we are done.”

“You will not be welcome at our house.”

“You will not be welcome at the foundation.”

“We will treat you as a stranger,” she said.

I looked at her, seeing her clearly perhaps for the first time in my life.

The elegant coat, the expensive jewelry, the perfectly styled hair.

Beneath it all, there was nothing but a cold desire for control.

“You have thirty seconds to decide,” Helen said.

She checked her gold watch.

“Thirty seconds to save your career, your research, and your family.”

I glanced at the window.

Outside, the yellow streetlights of the Stanford campus cast long shadows across the wet pavement.

A student walked by, huddled under a black umbrella, completely free of the weight in this room.

I felt a sudden, sharp longing for that simplicity.

To just be a scientist again, working in a quiet lab without the burden of the Mitchell name.

“Well?” Helen asked.

“What is your answer?”

Before I could speak, my phone buzzed in my pocket.

It was a long, continuous vibration that signaled an urgent call.