Whie They Played in the Snow

I spent countless sleepless nights developing a breakthrough drug for a devastating illness, and I expected at least some recognition from my CEO girlfriend.

Instead, she accused me of wasting the company research budget and promoted a newly hired young assistant to oversee the company finances.

It was the middle of a brutal heatwave with temperatures that soared past ninety-eight degrees. The assistant locked the lab air-conditioning controls away so no one else could use them, while he shut himself inside his private office with the AC set to sixty degrees. He wrapped himself in a blanket and played video games.

I complained to my girlfriend, and she brushed it off as part of building company culture. She claimed she gave him authority for my own good because she believed it would prepare me for a future management position.

According to her, I was too narrow-minded to understand her intentions. She then shut off the lab main power supply and locked the control panel as if she wanted to teach me a lesson. The fans stopped working, and the heat grew worse.

Several coworkers collapsed from heat exhaustion and were taken to the hospital. The assistant posted photos of himself and my girlfriend at an indoor ski resort. They wore winter jackets and ate ice cream together.

The caption read, “Some people are sweeter than ice cream.”

I finally understood everything.

Her idea of company culture had never been anything more than an excuse to favor him.

Everyone expected me to confront her or demand an explanation. I packed up my things instead.

She mistook my silence for obedience. She believed her air-conditioning punishment had worked, and she promised that once she returned from closing her business deal, she might consider letting me enjoy the AC again.

She did not know that when she shut down the lab power, the research equipment stopped running. The drug we had just finished developing became unstable, and the experimental data was destroyed.

By the time the delivery deadline arrived, there would be no formula left to hand over. She would face a catastrophic breach-of-contract lawsuit and enormous financial penalties. Without access to the medication in time, she would also suffer permanent long-term complications from the illness we had tried to treat.

The temperature had reached ninety-eight degrees, and even if people could survive that kind of heat, living cells and newly developed drugs definitely could not. The machines that recorded all the lab data needed electricity as well.

I hurried to find the backup generator so I could restore power to the equipment.

I was digging around for the storage room key when my girlfriend sent me a message.

[What are you looking for?]

I pulled the key out of the drawer and casually replied: [Looking for the key. I'm going to get the backup generator running.]

The second I sent the message, I froze.

After the power outage, the surveillance cameras in the lab should have been dead. I could not understand how she knew I was searching for something.

I looked up at the security camera again. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the new intern quickly look away with guilt written across his face.

In that moment, everything became clear.

There was a spy in my lab.

Another message from my girlfriend came through, and this time it was a voice recording. I tapped it open, and her sharp, hurried voice blasted through the speaker.

“Do not you dare go. Can you not survive a little while without air conditioning? You even dug out the backup generator?”

A chill spread through my chest.

After all those years together, she distrusted me that much.

I still could not let personal feelings ruin something that important. The new drug we developed was extremely sensitive to heat. If the company failed to deliver on schedule, we would face a penalty worth hundreds of millions, and countless patients would lose access to the medicine they needed.

The saddest part was that I had created that drug for Jessica Shaw in the first place.

Jessica always suffered from stomach problems. I hated seeing her doubled over in pain, so I focused my research in that direction.

After years of work and several sleepless nights in a row, I finally developed that breakthrough medicine. It could solve Jessica’s stomach issues, and it brought the company a massive order.

Foster Group Pharmaceuticals was a giant in the industry. Once we secured that deal, the company would finally be able to go public.