Ariel was in bed, propped against her headboard and snuggled in her blankets and in her coziest pair of pajamas, reading from Meant to Be.
Jay rowed himself and Delilah over the water of the lake. The lake was incredibly clear, and Delilah shivered a bit as her hand touched the cold surface of the lake. She peered in the water, blonde hair falling all about her face, and giggled as a small fish tickled her fingers as it swam past. She peered shyly at Jay, his hair ruffled by the fall winds, and his eyes, though dark, full of warmth.
"So, do you come here often?" Delilah asked.
"Yeah, all the time, really. My father used to take us here when me and Krish were younger. Those were the days, we'd swim til we were starving and pruned all over and we still wouldn't come out. Krish and I would pretend we were dolphins, and see who could swim out the farthest from the shore of the lake."
"Wanna hear something wild? I didn't learn to swim til last year. I hated swimming when I was younger. My parents did, especially mom, but I, as stupid as it was, was afraid of sharks in the water." Delilah tucked a strand of her red hair behind her ear.
Jay smiled, the smile reaching his clear blue eyes… wait, red hair, blue eyes?
Ariel shook herself from her reverie. She had been imagining that handsome hunk from the museum. She had never been so blown away by someone, but that black hair and beautiful blue eyes in that gorgeous face had her "shook."
She attempted to shake that man from the corners of her mind; it wasn't like she would ever see him again. She turned over in her bed and turned her bed side lamp light off. She needed to get up early in the morning to volunteer for her lab. She closed her eyes and hoped that the museum man wouldn't appear in her dreams tonight.
It was the Tuesday morning cabinet meeting and yet, this was no normal cabinet meeting. The room was filled with suited persons hunched over a long standard conference table. The air felt tense and thick. The room sounded of shuffling papers, murmurs, and seemingly worried chatter. Most were peering over files, hundreds of files, both handwritten accounts and printed.
Eric and chief accountant Roger Grimsby sat at the head of the conference table, leaning into the chatter, both equally curious and worried about the situation.
"So?" Eric's voice cut through the hum.
Eyes in the room seemed to gravitate to a woman, seated at the middle of the table. She looked around, seeming both surprised and dismayed at the looks to her to speak, and smoothed the wrinkles out of her navy blue suit as she stood up.
"Sir, what we seem to have uncovered is negligent contamination. It's from years ago of course, and the company is beyond it now, as you have seen in your time as CEO," she gestured towards him, "but previously, it seems to be between the years 2000 and 2002, our company engaged in fraudulent behavior. We allowed batches of medication to enter the market that did not exactly work. Erm, well, it wasn't marketed properly." She paused and her face shifted a bit. "Fortunately, for most it appears their issues were psychosomatic, thus the medicine worked through the placebo effect. Unfortunately, there were cases in which there were people with issues that were physical and for them, the medication didn't work at all and or had side effects unseen in the testing."
"Unseen side effect?" Eric's eyebrows furrowed. "How severe were the side effects?"
"Unfortunately, sir, due the adverse outcomes of the medications, we had five main cases of severe outcomes. Three people," she handed files over, "Robert Tucker, Sergio Garcia, and Adelaide Hana were paralyzed because of the drug. As reparation, the company continues to pay their healthcare fees. And, two people, Jennifer Lee and Athena Meramec died due to the complications the drug caused with their existing conditions. Their families are also paid. Those payments were what you found in the accounting files."
Eric leaned back in his chair, a culmination of shock and worry twisted his face.
"And the follow-up? What did we do as a company afterwards?"
"Well, the good thing is since then, if there is a good thing here, really, is that we have enforced strict testing for all of medications to ensure that a situation like this never happens again. Of course, some people will have adverse reactions to drugs, but never again will it be due to a negligence on our part."
"Yeah," Eric rubbed his face in dismay. "Alright, that will be all for this meeting. Thank you all. I will see you at the next board meeting." Eric collected his files as his employees left the room. He breathed out, feeling weighed down by the information. He picked up his briefcase and walked out into the quiet hallway, the only noise being the electricity coursing through the walls.
Eric suddenly felt someone tug his arm in the hallway. It was Adrian, peering up at him with her maternal face. "I'm sorry, sir, but I thought there was one thing you should know. I worked with your father for years. Hans, he was a good man, you know as well as I do. And we all make mistakes, good people, and bad people alike. And I think he didn't tell you because he never wanted you to know about it. He didn't ever want you to be ashamed or disappointed in his actions."
She patted Eric on his arm, smiled a bit morosely, and walked on down the hallway. Eric stared on after her as she walked down the hall.
"Going to that lab?" Her father asked from his office.
"Yes, dad, I've told you before: I have volunteer hours at the Mohan lab every Thursday and Monday." She replied from her where she stood, dressed in a pair of slacks and a Polo-style shirt. She picked at the buttons on her shirt as she glanced in the mirror. She adjusted on her clip-on badge that read Ariel Meramec — Research Assistant, University of Louisana. She let it shine in the mirror for a minute before she picked up her book bag and finally headed out the door.