The Natural Healing Influencer

Chapter 3 The True Queen's Arrival

My core team waited by the executive exit. They had seen what happened in the lab, so I didn’t need to explain. We left Sterling Tower together and stepped into the wind.

Their faces held the same anger I had seen in the lab. They stayed with me without being asked.

Rotors drowned out the traffic. A black helicopter bearing the Reed Institute logo landed on the private helipad across the street.

As we boarded, I looked back at the tower. Julian stood at a high window, too far away for me to read his face.

The flight was short. Alexander Reed waited on the roof of the glass-and-steel institute. He had built his reputation and his company on medical research.

Alexander’s reputation among medical researchers was already secure. He had turned his own work into an institute that respected the people doing the research.

He nodded to me. “Dr. Vance. We’ve kept a lab ready for you for three years. I’m glad you finally decided to use it.”

A contract waited on the mahogany desk in my new office. It named me Chief Partner, gave me full control of my research, and offered a budget Sterling Medical could never have matched.

No clause handed my patents to the institute. No board member had approval over my formulas. Alexander had kept those terms ready for three years.

On the office screen, Sterling Medical held an emergency press gala for its “new wellness direction.” Camera flashes covered the podium. Julian looked relieved. Chloe looked pleased.

Senator Davis clapped Julian on the back.

“This is a bold move away from the cold, predatory practices of Big Pharma. We’re free from medical capitalists like Harper Vance, who would hold life itself hostage for profit.”

I had paid to keep him alive. Now he was calling me a profiteer on television.

My new assistant, Lena, placed a tablet on my desk. “The sample analysis is complete, Dr. Vance.”

The screen showed the chemical breakdown of Chloe’s “miracle healing oil”: cheap commercial moisturizers and common essential oils.

It also contained an illegal concentration of high-potency corticosteroids.

The corticosteroids accounted for Mrs. Sterling’s immediate “glow,” sudden energy, and temporary relief from inflammation.

Each use suppressed her immune system further. Continued exposure would damage her adrenal function until her body could no longer regulate itself.

The damage had not become visible yet, and they called that a miracle.

Lena watched my face. “Should I forward this to the FDA, Doctor?”

I swiped the report away, my expression unreadable. “No. Not yet.”

On the screen, guests toasted Chloe and praised her oil along with their freedom from my “extortion.”

I left the report on the tablet and turned back to the gala.