“Well, they don’t have a treatment for male infertility right now. What they do have is a very potent form of male birth control, birth control that doesn’t seem to have the unpleasant side effects of NAT.”
“Birth control?” Lila exclaimed, her brain spinning. “You think Dr. Rubio stole the samples and dosed Senator Dubois?”
“Yes, though I don’t understand why or how she’d do it.”
Lila’s stomach twisted. She knew exactly why and how. “Does this drug need to be ingested or injected?”
“Ingested would suffice.”
Lila stiffened on the exam table. Dubois had dined with the family several times a week for years. She’d eaten with him, watched him smile and laugh while another person at the table fed him an untested drug, changing the course of his career against his will. Had her mother studied his face all these months, reveling in the power she had over him?
Had she done the same with her daughters, thinking of them as her puppets?
Probably.
No wonder the chairwoman had sat with Jewel and Dubois all night long, crying with them, pretending to care. She had shaped their reaction, pushing them toward the one conclusion she wanted.
Lila pinched the bridge of her nose. She was the chief of security. She should have seen what was going on. She should have stopped it.
What if there were side effects?
“How long will it take for Senator Dubois to recover his
seed?”
Helen’s gaze fell to the floor. “Lila, from what Dr. Rodriguez has ascertained in the rodent trials, the effect is permanent. It’s the reason they haven’t tested it on human subjects yet. It’s a vasectomy in powder form. Dr. Rodriguez’s group is considering the market, but the fact that it’s permanent…”
Lila pictured Dubois milling around the park in the middle of Bullstow, wearing nothing more formal than a t-shirt and jeans, he and his brothers surrounded by children. Dubois, teaching his nephews how to throw a curve ball. Dubois, scooping up crying toddlers and setting them to rights once again. Dubois, wandering on the outskirts of the park, taking care of other men’s children, all the while dreaming of his own.
She recalled his list, a faded, yellowing strip of paper with all the names he had hoped to call his children one day, if only the mother would listen.
He’d bashfully shown it to her once, a very long time ago.
If she had just accepted her responsibility back then, he’d still have a chance to use it.
Helen’s palm vibrated. She checked her display and slipped it back into her pocket.
“I have to go.” Lila snatched up her scarf. “Thank you for the information.”
“Wait. Sit down. There’s something else we need to talk about.”
Lila cocked her head and hopped back on the exam table. “What is it?”
“The results of your blood tests,” Helen said with a contemplative frown. She rolled her stool closer. “Did you have sex with Senator La Roux?”
Lila shrugged, attempting to ignore the nervous twinge that erupted in her belly. “Why?”
Helen sighed heavily. “I warned you not to have sex with any of those men unless you wanted—”
Lila’s throat burned as she gulped. This time her mind didn’t call forth the charming La Roux. It brought up the brutal blackmailer. The same man who had punched and kicked and tried to murder her, with a red scowl and sweaty forehead and his fingers around her neck.
“I’m not pregnant,” she said, shaking her head.
“Even virgins can get pregnant the first time.”
“How do you even know? It hasn’t been forty-eight hours.”
“It takes forty hours to be sure of a no. It can take less time to detect the EPF in the blood for a yes. I thought I should test after—”