Chapter 18: What He Gave Up

Elliot's POV

I did not sleep on Tuesday night.

At six on Wednesday morning I called London, where it was already eleven.

The director of the lab picked up on the second ring.

"Elliot," he said. "I've seen both videos."

"Then you know why I'm calling."

"I was hoping you'd tell me it was a misunderstanding."

"It wasn't. I did it, and I'm taking my name off the paper."

"That paper is eight years of your work."

"Half of it is Courtney's work, and she can keep the credit that's real," I said. "Mine goes."

He was quiet for a while.

"The grant is tied to you," he said. "If you step down, it goes to someone younger."

"Then it goes."

"You won't get another one like it."

"I know. Please write this down. I'm resigning as principal investigator today."

"Why today?"

"Because a man who did what I did in that restaurant has no business running a trial on sick people."

"Courtney phoned me last night," he said. "She told me you were unwell and I shouldn't accept anything you said."

"Did you believe her?"

"I watched the third camera angle," he said. "No."

He did not argue after that.

By nine I was on a car lot across town.

It was the gray sedan I had bought the week I came home.

The salesman walked around it twice and named a number.

It was low, and I took it before he finished saying it.

"Don't you want to haggle?" he asked.

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