Chapter 7 - CASSANDRA’S VERSION OF THE EXPLOSION
I opened the door only after hearing Cassandra say:
“He told you?”
Julian answered:
“Leave.”
“No.”
“Not here.”
“Especially here.”
I kept the chain lock engaged.
The door opened three inches.
I could not see either of them.
I didn’t need to.
Cassandra’s breathing was fast.
Julian sounded controlled again.
“Elena, close the door.”
I ignored him.
“Cassandra, was the explosion supposed to happen?”
Silence.
Then she laughed.
“Listen to him trying to make me the murderer.”
“I asked you.”
“No.”
“Then what was supposed to happen?”
“Reactor shutdown.”
Julian said:
“She’s lying.”
Cassandra snapped:
“You wrote the sequence.”
“I wrote the rejection plan.”
“You supplied the suppression credential.”
“For the simulated fault.”
My mind raced.
There had been a plan.
Both admitted that.
A controlled reactor fault designed to force me to reject Batch 7.
Fraudulent.
Dangerous.
But not necessarily intended to explode.
“Why?”
I asked.
Cassandra answered before Julian could.
“Aurum had become unfinanceable under your patent restrictions.”
“My patent restrictions protected the validated sequence.”
“They protected your ego.”
“They prevented unverified changes.”
“You refused every production shortcut.”
“Because biology doesn’t care about investor deadlines.”
Julian interrupted.
“Enough.”
“No,” Cassandra said. “She wants truth?”
Her heels moved closer.
“Batch 7 increased yield by thirty-four percent.”
“At what cost?”
Silence.
I knew.
“Cytokine instability.”
Cassandra didn’t answer.
That was enough.
Aurum worked by prompting damaged tissue into a temporary regenerative state.
Too much signaling could trigger uncontrolled inflammatory response.
In a lab model, that meant failure.
In a patient, it could mean death.
“You hid the instability.”
“We were fixing it.”
“You were launching it.”
“Because you wouldn’t give us another quarter.”
“I was the one asking for another quarter.”
Cassandra laughed bitterly.
“Exactly. You were going to kill the company.”
I almost admired the logic.
In her world, preventing unsafe launch was destruction.
“So you created a separate patent route.”
“Yes.”
“Needed me to reject Batch 7.”
“Yes.”
“Then planned to say your optimized sequence was new.”
Silence.
“Yes.”
“And the reactor fault?”
“Was supposed to force the system into containment the moment you opened the batch file.”
Julian said:
“She is leaving out the gas feed.”
Cassandra snapped:
“I didn’t increase hydrogen.”
“Your credential opened the interlock.”
“After the alarm.”
“Before the explosion.”
Their voices overlapped.
I raised mine.
“Stop.”
Silence.
“Who closed ventilation?”
Neither answered.
“My credential did.”
Julian said:
“We assumed Cassandra cloned it.”
Cassandra laughed.
“I assumed you did.”
There.
Neither trusted the other.
Maybe both were lying.
Or maybe a third person had turned their fraudulent stunt into attempted murder.
“Miriam Cross?”
I asked.
Silence.
Cassandra’s breathing changed.
“What about Miriam?”
“She drafted the incapacity language.”
Julian cursed quietly.
Cassandra said:
“She was protecting the company.”
“Did she know about the reactor plan?”
“No.”
Julian said:
“I don’t know.”
Two different answers.
I stored that.
“What company did you move Aurum assets into?”
Cassandra went silent.
Julian said:
“Tell her.”
“Go to hell.”
“Cassandra.”
“You think you’re going to run back to your wife now?”
I almost laughed.
“Trust me, that door is closed.”
Julian said nothing.
Cassandra’s voice sharpened.
“Aurum Clinical Holdings.”
“What does it own?”
“Licensing rights.”
“How many?”
“Certain markets.”
Julian snapped:
“All North American commercialization.”
I went still.
“Who owns Aurum Clinical Holdings?”
Cassandra did not answer.
Julian did.
“Not her.”
That frightened me.
“Then who?”
“I don’t know.”
Cassandra laughed.
“You really are slower than I thought.”
Julian moved.
I heard fabric, then Cassandra gasp.
“Get your hands off me.”
“What did you sign?”
“Nothing you didn’t.”
“What did you sign?”
She shoved him.
The hallway wall shook.
I closed the door enough to protect myself but kept listening.
Cassandra said:
“You thought taking Elena’s voting shares made you powerful.”
“What did you do?”
“I made sure neither of you could ever own Aurum again.”
My stomach tightened.
“Who owns it?”
I called through the gap.
Cassandra answered:
“A trust.”
“What trust?”
“The Vale Biomedical Continuity Trust.”
Her surname.
Of course.
Julian swore.
I asked:
“Beneficiary?”
Silence.
Then Cassandra said something I hadn’t expected.
“I don’t know.”
Julian laughed in disbelief.
“You transferred Aurum into a trust without knowing the beneficiary?”
“I know the trustee.”
“Who?”
Another pause.
“Miriam Cross.”
My general counsel.
The woman who helped prepare my incapacity paperwork.
The third set of hands inside the legal files.
The person Cassandra trusted enough to hold the company nobody else realized had swallowed Aurum.
Then my phone announced a new email.
Sender:
Miriam Cross.
Subject:
May you like
IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHO TRIED TO KILL YOU, COME WITHOUT JULIAN OR CASSANDRA.
📖 Discover why Miriam Cross secretly controlled the trust holding Aurum—and what evidence she claimed proved the explosion was not Cassandra’s original plan in CHAPTER 8. 👇
