Elena went to her room and threw herself on the bed. She felt incredibly tired and depressed. Her father did not say a word while they were driving in the car on their way home. The atmosphere was tense, and she did not dare to start a conversation. But there was no point in postponing it either. The girl wanted to get answers to the questions that tormented her as quickly as possible.Elena took off her dress, took a shower and changed into comfortable home clothes. Tying hair, she looked in the mirror and sighed. "Well, I hope he cooled down a bit, and I can try to talk to him." The girl left the room and walked toward the office of President Lee.
Knock Knock.
"Come in."
President Lee was sitting at his desk and studying the doc.u.ments. Elena went ahead and sat in front of him.
"Dad, I would like to talk to you."
"Elena, I"m a little busy right now. Can we do it later? And I"m not in the mood for having a conversation either," Chen answered coldly, not taking his eyes off the papers.
"That"s why we need to talk now. I don"t want this problem to remain unspoken and cause even more confusion in the future."
The President sighed, put a pen on the table and leaned back in his chair. "Okay, talk. I"m listening to you."
Elena took a deep breath. "Dad, tell me, please, why are you so negative about David? This is not the first time you have behaved this way, although he did not do anything that could trigger such a reaction."
"Didn"t do anything, you are saying? Honey, if you don"t know something, it doesn"t mean that it doesn"t exist. And if I treat him that way, it means I have reasons for doing that."
"Well, tell me about these reasons then! How can I understand something if you don"t even want to share it with me?!" Elena felt offended. She respected her father, but his negative att.i.tude towards the man she liked caused resentment in her heart.
Chen Li sighed, got up from the table and walked towards the book case, where there were folders with doc.u.ments. "There are things that you better not know. And there are things that you will find out anyway." He opened the book case, took out a doc.u.ment from one of the folders and handed it to Elena.
"What is it?"
"Secret information. More precisely, it means that it must be secret. But this year the decision on this issue is so obvious that any average person will tell you his version and will not be mistaken."
Elena looked at the first line of the doc.u.ment. >Then she looked down. Next were pictures of two people. She knew one of them. It was a scientist from the laboratory of her father, who guessed the formula of the virus, which allowed starting creating a vaccine. The other person...
Elena looked at the photo and froze, shocked by what she saw.
"Who is this? Is it really..."
Chen Lee grinned, seeing his daughter"s bewildered reaction. "Yes, everything is exactly as you thought."
Elena was looking at the photo on which an attractive young man, aged about thirty, was smiling at her. His dark hair, eyes and facial features seemed painfully familiar to her. She looked down and read his name. "Daniel Anderson."
"Is this ... is this David"s brother? Is he that secret scientist from Greenline Inc., whom the company has not yet represented, he is David"s elder brother?!"
"That"s correct."
Elena was looking at the photo of the man and thoughts were swirling in her head. "Why did David not tell me anything about this? Stop it, and why did he have to tell me about this anyway? First, I never asked him about the affairs of the company. And second, it"s a trade secret, if they still are hiding it from the public. But, all the same, it is somehow...," and here Elena felt that her thoughts are leading her away from the purpose of the conversation, for which she initially came to this room.
"Well, I realized that the scientist from Greenline Inc. is the eldest Anderson. But how does that affect your opinion about David himself?"
"Are you sure you want to know about it? I will tell you, only then do not tell me that you did not want to know it."
"This will not happen," the girl said confidently.
"To begin with, our laboratory had been working with the virus for a very long time. Elena, so that you know, our scientists had worked hard for the whole year. The whole year! And when the work was finished, some of the research suddenly disappeared! And do you know what happened next? Greenline Inc. had achieved in a month what our team had been doing for a year! Within a month, Elena! They even issued a patent for a vaccine on the same day that we did! And how do you think I should treat your friend Anderson, huh?!" Mr. Lee said maliciously and hit the table with all his strength. "How should I feel when I see how close you are to this thief?!"
"Father! If you do not have substantial evidence, then you have no right to call another person a thief!"
"DON"T TALK ABOUT MY RIGHTS! YOU DON"T KNOW ANYTHING!"
The girl shuddered in surprise. Never had her father allowed himself to raise his tone on her.
The man immediately realized that he was over emotional, "Sorry. I did not want to shout at you." President Lee sighed and sat back in his chair.
"Listen to me, Elena. I knew the father of this guy even before you appeared in this house. I know what I"m talking about. And I also understand that I cannot ask you to stop communicating with him completely. This is impossible, given the society which we are in. But I beg you; do not start a close relationship with him. This young man may not be the guy you see him like."
Elena lowered her head thoughtfully. Her brain began to a.n.a.lyze the information that she received, and suddenly one thought popped in her head. It was the question to which she would like to receive an answer and, at the same time, the question that she would like to leave unanswered.
"Dad, when, you are saying, have you lost your lab doc.u.ments?"
"About two months ago. I remember I had to return from a business trip urgently."
"Can you show me what kind of doc.u.ments they were?"
"Why do you need it? You do not understand chemistry or biology," Mr. Lee was surprised by the unexpected request of his daughter. "Okay. This is you, so then I think there will be no problems. I can show you some of the doc.u.ments. But these are the secret technologies of Lee Pharmaceuticals. So bear that in mind."
The man entered the code from the lock on the drawer of his table and pulled out a folder. Elena took it from her father"s hands, opened it, and the girl"s heart froze.
The thought that suddenly appeared in her head. The question that she would prefer to leave unanswered. All her doubts were immediately confirmed.
Her memory abilities never failed. This turned out to be exactly what she was thinking about. Elena had a doc.u.ment in her hands, a copy of which she personally handed to David that day. Two months ago.