#Chapter 58: The Path Forward

Grace I walked in, still fuming, and heard clapping. I looked up to see Charles there. The receptionist stood up and clapped, too, as did the security officers on the floor. Someone let out a wolf whistle, and I flushed. Charles grinned. "See. All of the above worked just fine." I turned back and let out a sigh of relief to see them dispersing. "Was… that the hard or the easy part?" "Neither. It was just step one," Charles smiled. "Now, head back to the lab before two through ten starts." Eason came in behind me, grinned, whistled, and clapped, too. "There's my sister! I haven't seen feisty Grace in a long time!" I winced. "I just pissed off a lot of people, didn't I?" Eason and Charles laughed. "Way more than you know." In the days following the protest, I found myself drowning in exhaustion. The aftermath had been a whirlwind, with emotions running high and my patience stretched to its limits. But as I had promised, I was prepared to sign off on every tr