Elowen's POV
The bright diamond bracelet sparkled under the harsh fluorescent lights of the laboratory.
"Oh my gosh, Elowen! Is that Tiffany?"
Selina, a junior researcher from the cell culture team, gasped as she passed by my desk, her eyes wide with unfeigned envy. "Those brilliant-cut diamonds are huge! Who sent them? A secret admirer?"
"It's nothing," I said quietly, closing the velvet box with a sharp snap and sliding it into my desk drawer.
Before Selina could pry any further, a sudden shadow fell across the glass partition.
It was Jasmine.
She had just returned to the lab to pack up her personal belongings after being fired. Her face was heavily bruised and grotesquely swollen, her eyes dark and sunken beneath puffy, purple skin.
When Jasmine saw the iconic Robin's-egg-blue b
