Caro Carson - The Doctor's Former Fiancee

There was no money in treating migraines, he’d said. Lana trailed her finger down the page, seeing patient after patient who would not be helped because they couldn’t generate a profit.

One name, one name in the entire bunch, jumped off the page, crystal clear, in perfect focus.

Oh, Braden, how could you?

His own mother was about to lose her chance for pain relief. Marion MacDowell had been receiving the active medicine.

Lana glanced at Braden’s card. She’d set it off to the side of her desk. Lana was not supposed to deal with PLI’s president directly, but this Cheryl Gassett did not have the power to keep a study running. Only Braden did.

His mother’s involvement in the study might not be enough to sway him. One patient made no difference to a worldwide corporation, and Braden represented that corporation.

Then again, even Braden MacDowell in pursuit of the almighty dollar might not be able to ignore his own mother’s needs. Maybe Lana could keep the migraine study going.

I regret to inform you that Plaine Laboratories International has decided to end all trials. Goodbye, Dr. Donnoli.

No, that couldn’t be the last word between them.

Lana picked up the phone and dialed.

* * *

“Excuse me, Mom. I need to take this call.”

No matter where he was in the world, Braden’s assistant took all his calls, acting as his gatekeeper. She only picked up on the fifth ring, however, an arrangement that gave Braden the option of answering if he felt it was necessary. As his phone rang, Braden recognized the first digits on the caller ID as being from West Central. It could be Jamie calling. Or Quinn. Or...

“MacDowell,” he answered on the fourth ring.

“It’s Lana. I’d like to set up a meeting. I’ve got more information on that migraine trial.”

Or it could be his former fiancée, suddenly back in his life when he’d decided to let the last memory of her go.

“Go ahead,” he said, standing up from his mother’s dining-room table and walking into the kitchen.

“I’ve got availability every day this week. Is there a particular time that works best for you?”

“I meant, go ahead. I’m listening. Let’s hear your pitch.”

“Now?”

He let his silence answer her. Did the woman not know how business was done? On the spot. At the moment. Around the clock.

“I was calling to set up a future time. We can do this by phone, if you like, but I wasn’t planning on bothering you now, not while you’re traveling to Manhattan.”

“If I weren’t ready to conduct business, I wouldn’t have answered the phone.” He didn’t say he wasn’t on a plane. He did not tell her he was standing in front of his mother’s kitchen sink, watching through the picture window as twilight settled over the distant barn and the even more distant fence line.

Lana spoke evenly, although he was sure his terse response must have irritated her. “I didn’t call to give you a thirty-second canned speech. I am, however, ready to set up a time for the two of us to have an intelligent one-on-one discussion.”

Braden heard the steel in her voice. Lana refused to be intimidated by him. She’d never been intimidated by anyone, he recalled.

Good for her. She was going to need that backbone in her new position, but whether or not she had the chops to run West Central’s research was not his problem. In fact, West Central was not his problem, not directly. As president, he needed to deal with the big picture, not individual research sites.

“Then when you’re ready to present whatever information you feel is necessary,” he said, “call Cheryl Gassett. I’m sure her contact info is in Dr. Montgomery’s records.”

“I realize that the hospital your father founded is no longer worth your time, but I wanted to discuss something that I don’t think your regional rep needs to know.”

Braden almost smiled. He had to give her points for bringing up his father, a blatant but understandable attempt to stir his emotions. In negotiations, when someone was stonewalling, it was possible to break through that wall by engaging that person’s emotions.

Braden had always found it easy to stay detached during business negotiations. Emotions had no place in science. No place in research. Her attempt was useless.

Lana spoke when he did not. “I’m worried about your mother’s involvement in this study.”

Then again, his mother had no place in research, either. He glanced at her as she entered the kitchen. “My mother is ineligible for the study because she’s a relative of a PLI employee. She’s not enrolled in any study that I know of.”

His mother looked surprised. She pointed to her chest and mouthed the question, Me?

Braden raised an eyebrow in question, and she shook her head “no.”

“In addition to being a PLI relation, my mother doesn’t suffer from migraines, so she wouldn’t be enrolled in this study in particular.”

“Regardless, she is a patient in the study.” Lana’s tone was starting to reveal her irritation. Her emotions, at least, were engaged. “She was receiving the active drug, not the placebo. I’m asking you to reconsider. Don’t terminate a study that was benefiting your own mother.”

“The study is not viable whether my mother is involved in it or not. And she’s not.”

He looked toward his mother for affirmation, but this time she only used her hand to imitate a phone held to her ear as she mouthed, Lana?

Of course, his mother would have keyed in on the name Lana. Braden turned back to the window. He needed to concentrate.

“The address for this Marion MacDowell is your ranch, Braden. She does still live there, doesn’t she?”

Braden didn’t answer. His mind was racing ahead to the implications of his mother’s enrollment in the study.

“If she doesn’t suffer from migraines, then why else would she have been given this medicine?”

That was a million-dollar question, indeed. Braden was anxious to get off the phone and find out, but he wasn’t going to tell Lana that.

Lana continued probing. “Your parents were friends with Dr. Montgomery. Would he have been using this study drug to treat your mother for some other reason? What other conditions might it treat?”

Leave it to Lana to figure out the implications so quickly. Braden was burning with curiosity himself. “I’ll retrieve the records from your office tomorrow.”

“I thought you were in New York.”

“My plans changed. I’ll be there tomorrow. Eight o’clock.”

Braden disconnected the call and turned to his mother. She was quick on the trigger. “Was that Lana Donnoli? Are you two speaking again?”

“First things first, Mom. What kind of pills did Dr. Montgomery give you, and why?”

His mother used her hand to wave his question away, making a shooing motion as if his question were an annoying fly that had gotten in between them when she wanted to talk about something else. “Lana Donnoli, after all these years. I’m happy to hear you two have found each other again.”

“Lana and I haven’t found anything. We’re only speaking out of necessity. I need to know if Dr. Montgomery gave you any pills.”

“Out of necessity? What on earth does that mean?”

“It’s business,” he said firmly. “Let’s not get distracted from the subject.”

“Lana Donnoli is the subject. Watch your tone, young man.”

That did make Braden pause. He was the president of PLI. He set the agendas. If he said the subject was Dr. Montgomery, then that was the subject. One thousand employees of PLI would agree. But his mother?

Braden sighed and let himself lean against the sink. “Dr. Montgomery might have given you a medicine that my company was studying. As my mother, you aren’t eligible to be in the study at all. This is serious. Breaches in study protocol can be brought to the FDA’s attention.”