nearly laughed.
The affair was ugly.
The ring was ugly.
But neither explained why I had already packed a suitcase.
That reason sat inside a gray notebook in my handbag.
Two days earlier, I had presented a safety report on Meridian’s newest product, the Aegis One—a motorized hospital bed designed for elderly and post-surgical patients.
During prolonged elevation tests, the control module overheated. When thermal protection activated, the braking mechanism sometimes responded three seconds late.
Three seconds sounded insignificant in a boardroom.
Three seconds could send a seventy-year-old patient onto
