"Maggie, all you have to do is come back to work, convince Bernard to increase his investment in the company."
"Then apologize to Queenie. Admit you were wrong. Promise you won't give her trouble again."
"Do that, and I'll hand this to the doctors right now."
Queenie was perched on the sofa. She picked up the cold-storage case and turned it over in her hands.
"Maggie, Barret's really doing this for your own good."
"A woman's husband should always come before her career. You know that."
I clenched my jaw and stared at Barret.
"That medicine is the only thing keeping my grandmother alive!"
"Barret! When your startup was on the verge of collapse, my grandmother gave you her life savings so you could make payroll!"
"She treated you like her own grandson!"
"And now you're holding her life hostage to blackmail me?"
"Are you even human?"
When he heard me invoke what my grandmother had done for him, something flickered in Barret's eyes. A flash of guilt.
His mouth opened.
Queenie immediately leaned in and wrapped herself around his arm.
"Barret, why are you going soft?"
"She pushed you into this."