Chapter 2

After meeting up with my best friend and venting, I was rubbing my still-sore scalp, ready to curse the girl out all over again.

Then my phone chimed.

It was a message from my advisor.

[Claire, we have a new member joining our research team tomorrow. I’d like you to show her the ropes.]

My brow immediately furrowed.

Our project was confidential. Every team member had gone through a rigorous screening process and had a specific role. Why were we suddenly taking someone new?

But I was only the team lead. My advisor had the final say. All I could do was sigh.

The next day, I’d barely arrived at the lab before my advisor called me into his office.

“Claire,” he began, looking uncomfortable, “the young woman who’s joining us is the department chair’s niece.”

My heart sank.

“She’s just here to polish her résumé and get some research experience. She won’t stay long. Be patient with her, and don’t let her access any core data.”

So she was a nepotism hire.

Considering how much funding the department chair had helped secure for our project, what could I say?

“Of course, Dr. Morgan. I understand.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. Fine. We’d been handed a spoiled princess. We’d just have to humor her.

What I never expected was that we hadn’t been handed a princess.

We’d been handed a walking disaster.

When Dr. Morgan led a girl in a Chanel suit and flawless makeup into the lab, I went rigid.

It was her. The perfume girl who’d tried to shake me down yesterday.

She clearly recognized me, too. Her sweet smile froze. Surprise and guilt flickered in her eyes before contempt and disgust took their place.

Oblivious, Dr. Morgan introduced her warmly. “Everyone, this is our newest member, Vanessa Sterling. Claire, she’ll be working with your team.”

Vanessa Sterling.

Even her name sounded like a spoiled heiress.

After a few instructions, Dr. Morgan hurried off, leaving us alone.

The second he was gone, Vanessa dropped the act.

She folded her arms and gave me a sideways look, a nasty smile curling her lips.

“Well, look who it is. How does someone as broke as you even get into a place like this?”

The other team members exchanged confused looks.

I laughed in disbelief.

Instead of wasting words, I unzipped my backpack, pulled a folded sheet of paper from an inner pocket, and slapped it onto the table.

“Vanessa Sterling, right? Yesterday at 3:15 p.m., on the pedestrian shopping street on Westbrook Avenue, someone who looked an awful lot like you claimed I’d smelled her forty-five-thousand-dollar perfume and demanded $299.”

I paused, staring straight into her increasingly panicked eyes.

“She also grabbed my hair. The officers at the scene identified it as attempted extortion and assault. This is the incident receipt they gave me. The outcome is right here in writing: she paid me $500 to cover medical expenses and emotional distress.”

Vanessa went white.

She stiffened her neck and shrieked, trying to sound brave. “You’re lying! I… I don’t even know you!”

“Really?”

Without expression, I took out my phone and opened my call history.

“I saved the officer’s number. Should I call him right now and ask whether I’m making false accusations?”

Her lips trembled. Not a word came out.

By now, the others had figured out most of what had happened. They rushed to smooth things over.

“Come on, this must be a misunderstanding!”

“We’re all on the same team now. We’ll be seeing each other every day. Let’s try to get along!”

Vanessa seized the escape route. After shooting me a vicious glare, she stalked to her empty workstation and slammed her designer bag onto the desk.

I put the receipt away, but I didn’t feel relieved.

From the way she looked at me, as though she wanted to murder me a thousand times over, I knew one thing.

My days weren’t going to be peaceful anymore.