Chapter 20

Grace

I couldn’t even think. I was barely processing what he told me. My mind was racing with a mix of emotions. I remembered the long hours and sleepless nights. I had left a good team to finish the work. How could it not be patented yet? What had they been doing? Was there something wrong with the synthesis? A component I missed?

"I didn't mean to blindside you," he said gently, reaching out to place to take my hand and squeeze. “It was just clear that you didn’t know, and you need to know.”

His eyes met mine. I could see his sincerity.

"Charles, I... I'm just surprised," I admitted, my voice tinged with a mix of uncertainty and curiosity.

"I understand," he replied, giving my hand another comforting squeeze. The warmth of it seemed to spread up my arm. "But I want you to know that you’re not alone in this.”

“I…” I cleared my throat and pulled out my phone. “I need to make a call.”

My hands were shaking as I called the R&D department, but the voice who answered wasn’t one I recognized.

“Wolfe Medical R&D.”

“This is Grace Wolfe,” I said. “I need to speak to the head of the department about the werewolf longevity project.”

“Oh, our new boss? Well, that project has been canceled and there hasn’t been a department head in years.”

My whole body went stiff and cold. Horror and anxiety rose like a tide. I couldn’t believe it.

“W-What? Where are the researchers?”

“They were mostly dismissed, some of them left. There are lab assistants still here.”

“A-And what are they doing?”

“Making pain potions and stuff like that.”

I couldn’t speak. All of R&D had been reduced to a production floor? The entire werewolf longevity project had come to a grinding halt when I left?

Something in me wailed with grief.

“T-Thank you,” I whispered, as tears started to burn in my eyes.

My life’s work had crashed the moment I walked away, but how could I blame anyone else?

Idiot. I was a fucking idiot. What else could I have expected? Walking away from my work and never looking back? Devin wasn’t a scientist and he wasn’t a werewolf. What would he care about it? The board might not have even known about it.

I felt sick.

“May I?” Charles asked.

I handed over the phone, but I couldn’t hear anything but my own grief. It was choking me, blinding me, and deafening. The world was swaying. I could see my father’s tombstone and next to it mine. I could almost see Cecil and Richard, grown up and looking down at my grave.

“Grace,” Charles said as he hung up the phone. I lifted my gaze.

“I’m…”

He handed me a small notebook and my phone. I looked down and saw a list of names and phone numbers that I recognized. They were all former employees of R&D. I looked up and met his gaze again.

"The first step to getting Wolfe Medical back on track is to revive the werewolf longevity project," he said firmly. "It needs to get to patent, through the trials, and to market ASAP, and I believe you're the one who can do it."

My gaze dropped to the list. I couldn’t speak.

“You need to get back in the lab.”

I shook my head, lost. There was no guarantee that these people would come back, no guarantee that I could finish the project. It had been so long. How much of it did I really remember? And what about my kids? I was already away from them for so long trying to figure out the company stuff. Going back to the lab would be even worse.

“I… It would be faster to hire someone.”

He shook his head. “It wouldn’t be cheaper though.”

My stomach clench.

“No one else will have the drive and dedication to see this through," he said. “And I doubt any of your former colleagues are going to come back for anything less than you leading the helm.”

I took the notebook. I could feel some part of me yearning to pick it back up, to finish it the way I had dreams. But doubts lingered. I sighed, flipping through the research team's names, my fingers tracing the familiar lines. The long hours flashed through my mind again, the sacrifices I had made to get as far as I had. I remembered every fight about my time at lab. I remember letting it slip away because I loved Devin and Devin said it was better to focus on being a mother.

Let someone else handle the lab. Don’t you have colleagues?

My jaw trembled. “I don’t think…”

“I have to run the pack. My kids need me. They’re young. I can't do it all," I murmured to myself, the weight of it all pressing down on me.

Charles' voice, steady and reassuring, spoke again. "You need to do what you're good at and what you can do right now."

What I could do right now? Please. I couldn’t even get my own lights turned on without help. I had no food and no clue.

“You and I both know that Wolfe Medical and Mooncrest don’t have the capital or the time to hire a new team immediately.” Charles' voice interrupted my thoughts again, cutting through the haze of uncertainty. "Not while preparing to take the company private again.”

“That’s why I said, I can’t. There has to be—“

“Why are you so hesitant to step back into it?”

"I can't run the team without a Ph.D.," I murmured, feeling the weight of my inadequacy. I grit my teeth. “I never finished my degree because I got pregnant with Cecil… All these people on this list definitely finished their degrees. I can’t lead them or anyone…”

I sniffled. “He told me that it would be better to just turn it over and focus on being a mom, and if he wasn’t a traitor he would be right. I hated the long hours. I can’t imagine doing that all again and letting my kids grow up without me.”

Charles took a deep breath. "You can finish your degree and use this project as your dissertation still because it’s not finished."

“Weren’t you listening?” I growled. “I don’t have the time.”

“Did you forget that you have a ticking clock too?"

I blinked, looking down at the list. “What?”

“Didn’t you say that you started this for your kids? What about you?” I blinked and met his gaze. “You made it sound like this was your life’s work. Are you going to let it remain unfinished?”

“What?” I swallowed. “What are you talking about? If we hire someone within a year, it’ll—“

“I know you know the statistics.”

I closed my mouth as I thought about it.

Werewolves typically lived into their sixties. My father had died at fifty-eight, but female werewolves tend to die a lot sooner, especially if they’d had children. The statistics said that I wouldn’t eve live to see fifty because I had two children and all the stress. I looked at Charles who was already in his late forties and looked like was barely out of his twenties.

“Oh… Oh no…” My jaw trembled. “I…”

My mother had been a lycan, so maybe I could how for fifty-five, but Richard would barely be twenty-five at that time.

No older than I had been when I met Devin. No older than I had been when I buried my father.

I couldn’t breathe. The panic swarmed, choking me. I could see my grave. I could see Cecil and Richard standing with Eason, who wouldn’t be there for much longer.

Charles took my hands. “You have a ticking clock, but you still have time.”

He cupped my jaw and lifted my head. My breath stuttered to a slow, even pace.

“Business is a lot of hurry up and wait without something to sell, Grace. You can hire anyone to run the process, leave it to your assistant, leave it to me, leave it to anyone who can follow simple instructions, but you’re the only one who can get into the lab and do the work.”

My jaw trembled. “My degree…”

“Didn’t you hear me earlier? The project isn’t done. It’s still yours.”

I swallowed. The words rang true. It was as if I hadn’t heard him before, but now his words were crystal clear. The car slowed to a stop. I turned to look out the window at the front of my house. I thought about all the years that had passed and the few years I might have left if I didn’t, and how many more I could have if I did. It wasn’t a decision I could make lightly. I still had to contact my school and see if they would take me back. I would have to study some more and get back up to speed.

I didn’t know if it was possible, but I… I wanted it to be.

“I’ll think about it.”