Skyler Collins was waiting for the apple pie she’d made for a party at Brooke’s house to come out of the oven before going to the bathroom. As soon as she placed it on the cooling rack, she started out of the kitchen, but the loud pounding at her front door stopped in her tracks.
She really needed to use the bathroom before answering the door, but she realized that the pounding wasn’t going to stop until she opened the door. Unsure who could be beating at her door, she peeked out the viewer in the door before opening it. When she saw a policeman standing there, she quickly opened the front door, and then the storm door so she could speak to him.
Richard Torres, the officer at the door, was angry with women in general as yesterday he had found his wife of two years in their bed with another man. Even though he wanted to knock his wife’s lights out for being unfaithful, he kept his cool and simply walked out of the house.
He couldn’t retaliate against his wife for her actions against him, but he could do something to the woman in front of him who had murdered her husband in cold blood. Before she could ask why he was there, he roughly grabbed hold of her. “You’re under arrest for the murder of your husband, David,” said Richard.
Her eyes grew big. “What? I haven’t murdered anyone, especially a husband that I don’t have.” She didn’t like the look the policeman was giving her.
“Yea, like I’m going to believe that one.” He roughly turned her around and handcuffed her.
She had to find a way to get this officer to release her. “Who do you think I am?”
“You are Belinda Applegate, you killed David during a jealous rage when you caught your husband with his girlfriend at the Smoky Gray Motel.” Because of his wife’s actions, he understood why she did it, but since it was wrong to murder someone, she was going to have to pay for her crime.
She was relieved to know this was all a simple oversight, one that could be fixed quickly. “That’s where your mistake is, as my name is Skyler Collins.”
“You can straighten out the confusion at station,” he said coldly.
“If you would just look at my driver’s license, it would show you I’m not this Belinda person you think I am.”
“I was told to arrest you, so that is what I’m going to do.”
“Could I at least use the bathroom before we go?” she asked softly.
His cold eyes peered at her. “You’ll have to wait, as I was ordered to bring you directly to headquarters.”
“Just remember if I pee my pants, it’s your fault,” she replied hatefully.
“No, problem. Now let’s go,” he said as he jerked her out the door. He didn’t care if she had an accident but hoped it wouldn’t be in the backseat of his car, as then it would be his job to clean up the mess.
“Could you at least grab my purse?” she asked coldly.
“Don’t have time,” he muttered as he started pulling the front door closed.
She wanted to call him a stupid idiot, but controlled the impulse, as it would only make the situation worst. “My ID in there, if you don’t take it, I won’t be able to prove my identity.”
“Fine,” he said hatefully. “Where is it?”
“It’s hanging on the coat rack next to the front door.”
He jerked her with him as he entered her house to get her purse. “Are you happy now?” he asked once the item was in his hand.
Her cold eyes looked back at him. “No, but it will have to do.”
Once she got to the station, everything was chaotic, as no one would listen to her as she told them repeatedly that she wasn’t Belinda Applegate, and therefore she was innocent of the murder. As she was being processed, she kept telling them that she needed to use the bathroom, but they just ignored her. After she was fingerprinted and had her picture taken, she was taken to a conference room and left alone with her hands still handcuffed behind her back.
“Hello,” she called out to the mirror. “Please I need to use the ladies’ room.”
Though no one came to help her, some sixth sense told her that someone was watching her from the other side of the mirror and figured it was that nasty officer wanting to see her suffer for some reason.
Richard just grinned at her pathetic voice. Now that she was in the room alone, he yearned for her to have accident, especially because he wouldn’t have to be the one to clean it up.
Or so he thought.
Just when she thought the situation couldn’t get worst, she started getting an aura, which indicated she was about to get a migraine. She wasn’t surprised, as it was probably caused by the stress of being arrested and held for a crime she didn’t commit. She knew from experience that if she didn’t take her medicine soon, she would be throwing up her lunch.
Detective Greg Matthews had just stepped into the room with Richard when he heard him laugh. “What is going on in there?”
Richard hadn’t heard him enter the room, and so he was surprised when Greg spoke. “Nothing,” he replied, his facial expression showing that he was lying.
Greg stepped to the window to see for himself what was happening in the other room.
“Please, could someone bring me my migraine medicine that’s in my purse,” she called out towards the two-way mirror. The migraine was to the point it was starting to make her ill. “If I don’t have it soon, I’m going to be sick,” she said, with tears filling her eyes.
Before either man could react, she did just as she said would happen and because the room was bare other than the table and three chairs; she bent over and started vomiting on the floor. With her hands behind her back, she couldn’t even keep her hair away for her face, and soon it was soiled as well as the floor.
Then matters got worst for her, as the force of her vomiting caused her to lose control of her bladder, and soon the floor was covered with urine as well as puke. She was in tears, as none of this should have happened to her. First, she wasn’t the person they wanted, secondly, she had simply wanted to use a bathroom and lastly, she wanted to have her medication. Even if she had been a criminal, wasn’t she entitled to use the bathroom and have her medication?
Help finally arrived, but it was too late to be of much good to her. A woman officer entered the room, undid her cuffs, and gave her the migraine medicine and a glass of water. Once that was done, she helped her to the lady’s shower so she could clean up, and afterwards, she was given a pair of sweatpants and a top that belonged to the same officer.
After Skyler was returned to a new room, a detective came in to question her, something that should have happened just moments after she’d been placed in a room. Once he started asking her questions, it didn’t take long for the misunderstanding to be figured out, as the woman they wanted used to own the house Skyler was now living in.
Meanwhile, Richard had the chore of cleaning up the mess left behind because of his inhuman treatment of Skyler. Not only that, but he was facing a severe reprimand for his treatment of her, especially since if he had checked out her driver’s license at her home; she wouldn’t have been arrested in the first place.
After Skyler was released, she decided to file a complaint about the treatment she had received at the police station and the actions of the arresting officer, as none of this would have had to happen if the arresting officer hadn’t been such an ass. Besides, even if she had been guilty of the crime, she shouldn’t have been treated the way she was.
The media caught wind of her ill-treatment and that evening; the news was filled with her story. It wasn’t long before she had been contacted by police officials offering her a five-thousand-dollar check to retract her statement. The money would have been nice, but she was insulted by the bribe, so she told them they couldn’t pay her enough to withdraw her comment of how she’d been treated at their precinct.
It wasn’t long before other victims came forth with their stories of mistreatment at the same precinct. Within hours of her arrest, Richard, her arresting officer, the man who tried to pay her off and several other high officials were fired. Everyone who had complained of misconduct received a very large compensation for what had happened to each of them, a great deal more than five-thousand-dollar check.
The next day Skyler decided to sell the house that was partly responsible for what had happened to her with the police. She decided to use Richardson’s Realtors, as she’d seen their commercials for years, so she picked up the phone and dialed their number.
“Richardson’s Realtors, how may I help you?” asked a female voice.
“I need a realtor,” she told the woman.
“Jarvis Elder is available.”
Maybe she would be lucky and could start looking for a house today. “Is he in the office right now?”
“Yes, I’ll connect you.”
“Thank you,” Skyler said, just before she heard a phone ringing in her ear.
“This is Jarvis Elder; how may I help you?” asked a deep male’s voice.
“My name is Skyler Collins; I need to sell my house and buy another one.”
Her name rang a bell, but he didn’t know why that was. “I’m sure I can help you find the perfect house. If you want to come in, we can get started on the information to sell your house, as well as start a house loan.”
“A loan won’t be necessary.” She had received enough money from her settlement that she planned to pay cash for her new home.
“I see.” Jarvis was curious, as most everyone took out a loan to buy a home. “What price range are you looking for?”
“Between one hundred seventy and two hundred thousand.”
Her answer caused Jarvis to smile, as she had to have a good amount of money in the bank to buy a house in that price range. He couldn’t wait to meet this woman. “Did you have a floor plan in mind?”
“I want a ranch-style home under five-year-old, three bedrooms, at least two bathrooms, a basement and a large walk-in closet in the master bedroom.”
“I’ll check the listings and see what I can find with that requirement. Do you have a preference of what part of the city you want?”
“My job is in North Kansas City, so I would like to stay in the Northland, stay south of KCI airport and Liberty, but other that, I don’t really have any other requirements.”
“I’ll do a search and will email you a list later today. Once you’ve had time to go over it, let me know which houses you would like to look at.”
“That sounds like a plan.”
After Skyler received Jarvis’ email with the house listings, she called him about the houses she wanted to look at. They made an appointment to meet the next day and she took the day off from work so she would plenty of time to look at each house.
After they hung up, Jarvis got on the Internet and researched her name. He hit the jackpot when he read about her incident with the police, and learned she’d received a large settlement. The exact amount wasn’t mentioned, but he just knew he had to get his hands on it.
When Skyler walked into his office, Jarvis was entranced, as she was simply beautiful, and having money, made her all that more alluring. Once introductions were over, he asked her to sit down so they could decide which order she wanted to view the houses she wanted to see.
“The Briarcliff housing addition has some beautiful homes,” he told her knowing the cheapest house for sale in that addition was for six hundred thousand dollars.
Skyler laughed. “Those homes are huge; I wouldn’t be comfortable in a place like that.”
He was stunned by her reply, as she hadn’t said she couldn’t afford it, only that it would be too large. “You don’t know that until you go in one and view one. There are five for sale in that area, I’m sure we could find one you like.”
Not only didn’t she have any desire to live in a mansion, she didn’t like the way he was trying to get her to buy a more expensive home. “My answer is no, and if you aren’t going to listen to me, then I’ll get a different realtor,” she said forcefully, as she wasn’t going to be pushed into buying a house she didn’t want, just so he would get a large commission.
He instantly realized he’d pushed her too far. “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to offend you,” he said, hoping she wouldn’t fire him.
Not only did Jarvis sell her home, he found her a house just a five-minute drive from Brooke and Mallory, and a fifteen-minute drive from her job. She loved the backyard that was up against a wooded area filled with all sorts of wildlife.
Jarvis was hoping she would buy a more expensive house, but he did get her to accept a date with him, so that was at least something in his favor.
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* * *
Since starting her job three years ago, at Logan’s Make-Up, a cosmetic company, Skyler had moved up to second-in-command scientist. She loved her job, but even after all the great innovations she’d given to the company, she hadn’t gotten a raise to go with the job title.
When she asked Lyle for an increase in her salary, he told her he couldn’t give her one, because then she would be making more money than his son Roger, who also worked at the company. Since her situation wasn’t ever going to change, she had started looking for a new job, but in the meantime, Skyler would do the best job she could.
During her off time at home, she’d been working on a new creation, and just this week, she’d finished fabricating the last section for a formula for the men’s cologne market. She wanted to double check her work one more time before Monday, so she hit the print button on her computer. As the printer began spitting out the pages, she closed down her computer for the night, got her purse out of her desk and reached for her coat. When she looked at the clock on her desk and saw she still had five minutes before the end of the day, she decided to double check the printout before she left.
As soon as she began scanning the page, she saw not only were there four of the numbers in the chemical formulation transposed, but her chemical creation that would make this perfume outstanding was also missing.
She smiled at the errors, as she had done this on purpose to protect her formula from theft by her fellow coworkers. She chuckled for if this formula was used as it was now, they would be surprised by what they produced, as the scent would smell worse than a skunk’s spray.
She wondered how she could have forgotten to make the corrections to the formula, then she shook her head. Since she’d been working such long hours at night to get this formula created, she’d simply hadn’t thought to make the corrections or add the most important part to the formula to this file.
Knowing it wouldn’t look good to present the perfume formula this way, the errors would have to be fixed but since it was time to leave, she left the printout in her desk, grabbed her coat and was out the door two seconds later.
Saturday morning, she made her corrections on her flash drive from her personal computer, then didn’t give the formula another thought until Monday when she arrived at work. When she reached her desk, she went to throw the incorrect copy away, but it wasn’t there. This confused her, as it should be where she left it.
Thinking it might have fallen off her desk, she looked around for it on the floor, when she didn’t find it, she was mystified to what could have happened to the missing page. She didn’t have time to worry about it now, as it was time for her to leave for the meeting. Besides, it didn’t matter where it was, as the formula wasn’t good to anyone the way it was.
She was just about to walk out the door when the phone on her desk rang. She debated about answering it, but thinking it might be important, she returned to her desk and picked up the phone. “Hello?”
“Is the Skyler Collins?”
“Yes, it is. How may I help you?”
“I’m Herb Goodman, the president of Dixon’s Cosmetics.”
She almost cried out with joy, as she had sent her resume to his company just last week for the position of head scientist. She knew from researching his company on the Internet, he had created his company ten years ago and was a competitor of Logan’s Make-Up. If she got the job, it would be poetic justice, as Lyle would be sorry for not giving her a raise.
“I’m calling to offer you the job of our new scientist.”
“Me? You want me! I can’t believe it. This is wonderful news. When do you want me to come for an interview?” she asked excitedly.
“I don’t,” he replied, smiling at her enthusiasm.
Her face instantly filled with disappointment. “I don’t understand. Why don’t you want an interview with me?” she muttered, her voice filled with bewilderment.
He laughed at the sound of her question. “I’m very impressed with your resume. So much so, that we want you on board, so you see, an interview isn’t necessary.”
“I’m so honored. I don’t know what to say,” she muttered, a bit embarrassed by his words.
“Say you’ll take the job,” he said jokingly. “Your starting annual pay will be one hundred thousand, with yearly raises, as well an assistant to help you with your work.”
She felt like she was walking on a cloud, as not only would she be making a considerably more money with his company, but she would also be getting raises and have an assistant.
Someone knocked on her door, and when she looked up, she saw one of her coworkers pointing at her watch. She nodded at her to let her know she’d seen her. “I really would like to talk more to you about this but need to go as I’m late for a meeting.”
“Call me after your meeting and we’ll make definite plans of when you want to start.”
“Perfect. I call you as soon as I can.” She said a quick goodbye, grabbed her printout and started for the meeting. When she arrived at the conference room, Lyle Logan was already speaking. He gave her a disgruntled look because she was late, but didn’t say anything to her about that fact, but kept on speaking.
“As I was saying, Roger will be the first to present his formula for the new perfume creation.”
As Skyler watched Roger stepped up to the podium, she wondered what kind of product he’d come up with this time, as none of his ideas had ever been a useable formulation. That being so, she didn’t think this one would be any good either.
When she saw her incorrect formula on the screen, she was quite surprised, as she didn’t think he was the type to steal another scientist’s work. She forced herself not to smile, as Roger looked nervous standing up there. She noticed how he kept looking over at her, as if he was waiting for her to speak up about what he’d done. Because she wanted him to sweat for a few moments, she didn’t accuse Roger of stealing her formula. She waited until he asked for any questions before she stood. “Is the formula for a solid or liquid form product?” she asked, keeping her eyes on his, as she knew he hadn’t any idea.
Roger had been expecting her to confront him for stealing her idea, so her question threw him, making him wonder if she recognized it was her formula. “I haven’t decided yet,” he said in the hopes she wouldn’t ask anything else.
“You haven’t created the perfume from this formula, have you?”
Roger was stunned by her statement, as he’d been expecting her to say something totally different. “Not yet, but I plan to do so soon.”
“Since your formula has several errors in it, you better fix them before you do,” she said with a knowing smile.
Roger looked at the hard copy in his hand and then looked at her. He didn’t believe there were any errors in her formulation as she was too good of a scientist to make errors; she was just trying to get him to confess to what he’d done. “There aren’t any errors in my formula,” he stated firmly.
Skyler smiled at him. “Since your so-called formula is mine, I know for a fact that there several errors, including some missing key ingredients.”
The audience in the room all gasped at her accusation, then they looked over at Lyle to see what he was going to do at her statement.
“Skyler, I don’t appreciate you accusing my son of doing something dishonest,” Lyle said loudly as he moved to stand next to his son.
“And I don’t appreciate him stealing my work off my desk and trying to pass it off as his,” she said shouted.
“You either apologize or you’re out of a job,” Lyle told her.
She picked up her corrected formula, as there wasn’t any way she was leaving it for them to use, besides, she had created this on her personal time, not during working hours. “Fine, I resign. I wish you luck with Roger’s version of my work,” she replied with a sarcastic grin.
She walked out of the silent room with her back straight and her head held high, and just as she reached the door, she heard the applause of her fellow coworkers, causing a warm sensation in her chest.
She returned to her office, sat down at the computer and systematically brought up all her files. Then she quickly deleted all the information on each file, and once that was done, she saved the empty file under the same name and then closed it. She did this to all her files, so if someone opened one of her files, they would be disappointed to find she hadn’t left anything else for them to steal. Since they were not just deleted files, but blank files, there wasn’t any way for the IT department to retrieve the lost information. When she was done, she put her belongings in a box, grabbed her purse and the houseplant she kept on her desk, and left her office for the last time.
Since she didn’t need this copy, as she passed the shredder, she inserted her printed formula into the machine. After the paper was shredded, she grabbed a handful of the strands from several locations, as this would prevent anyone from being able to put it back together if they tried to do so. She went to the kitchen recycle can and dumped them in, as she knew no one would think to look for the missing sections here among other shredded papers. Now she could honestly say she didn’t take any of the formula with her.
She said goodbye to everyone she saw, and most of them gave her a thumb up, all proud that she had stood up for herself, but before she could step out of the building, Lyle stopped her.
“I want to check your purse to make sure you aren’t stealing anything that belongs to my company.”
She wanted to laugh, as she knew he thought she had the corrected formula on her. “Go ahead and search, as I don’t have anything to hide.”
Lyle was disappointed that he didn’t find what he was looking for, as he knew his son probably had stolen her formula. “Okay, you are free to leave.”
As she as she stepped out of the office building, Lyle ran to her office to find the file with the correct formula and was quite surprised to discover all her files were empty of any data. Hoping there was some way to retrieve the formula, he called Tech Support hoping they could find what he needed, but there wasn’t anything for they could do for him.
* * *
Once she was in her car, she looked at her watch and was surprised to see it was only nine in the morning. Since most of the day was still left, she called Mr. Goodman to ask him if she could start working for him today.
Herb was thrill by her call but confused why she decided to leave the other company so suddenly. “What happened to cause you to leave so quickly?” he asked, as he was sure she would have wanted to give her boss a two-week notice.
“I refuse to work for a man who would let his son steal my creation and pass it off as his own, and then expect me to apologize to him.”
Herb was impressed by her integrity to stand up for her principles. He wanted to ask her about the formula that had caused the problem, but thought it was best if he just let it be. Instead, he told her to come on over, and she told him she was on the way.
* * *
Needing someone to talk about her news, Skyler called Jarvis and told him about quitting her job and about accepting the new one. She expected him to tell her how happy he was for her, but instead, he asked was how much more money she would be making at the new company.
She was hurt by his lack of compassion of her leaving a company she’d put her heart and soul into all these years. So much so, that she told him she was taking a 10 percent pay cut.
He told her she was making a mistake in taking the new job and thought she should go back and apologize to her boss. Instead of telling him to take a flying leap, she thanked him for his input and hung up on him. When he called back a second later, she let it go to voice mail, as she wasn’t ready to forgive him.
* * *
When she reached Dixon’s Cosmetics, she was taken to Herb Goodman’s office.
“Skyler, I’m so glad you have decided to join our company,” he said as he took hold of both of her hands.
At the contact of his hand, she was filled with a warm feeling, as if she was been touched a family member and her face showed it.
Herb laughed at her expression when they touched. “You look like I feel, as touching you is like finding my lost sister. Who knows, maybe we are related,” he uttered, though he doubted she was actually his sister. “My adopted parents told me that I had a twin sister, but she had been taken by a different family before they arrived.”
She was shocked at his statement. “I was adopted when I was a baby, but that’s all I know about my family.”
“Really? When is your birthday?” he asked excitedly.
“March 12th, 1989,” she muttered.
Herb grabbed her hands in his. “That’s mine too. I think we should do a DNA test.”
She laughed at his comment. “I don’t think that will be necessary.”
“Of course, we should know for sure.” He squeezed her hand that he still held. “You don’t believe we are related. Why not? His eyes watched her as he waited for her reply.
“For one, I don’t see that we look anything alike. For another my parents never mentioned I had any siblings.”
“Maybe they didn’t know,” he said, as he didn’t want to insult her parents. “We’ll do the test and then we’ll know for sure.”
“Okay if it will make you happy, but don’t be too disappointed when you find out we aren’t related. On a different note, I want to thank you for offering me a job and hope I won’t disappoint you.”
He laughed. “That isn’t going to happen as I know what a brilliant creator of wonderful scents you are.”
He showed her around the building, introducing her to all the employees, including the vending guy who was filling up the candy and pop machines. He left her office for last, and when they reached it, she was surprised to see Cindy Finch, her childhood friend standing there smiling at her.
“Cindy, what are you doing here?” She was shocked to see her, as her friend was the last person, she expected to be her assistant. She knew Cindy had worked for this company for the last five years, but she hadn’t been expecting this.
“I’ve been promoted to be your assistant,” she replied, happily looking at Skyler.
“You never said a word to me,” she uttered, fighting tears.
“We wanted it to be a surprise. We thought we had more time to prepare, but your call this morning threw us in a panic,” Cindy told her with a chuckle.
“Sorry about that,” she said, giving them a smile. “By having my friend as my assistant, I know that you really do want me to work here,” she replied tearfully.
“We want you to be happy, so you’ll stay for a long time. Now let’s go look at your office.”
She was greatly surprised by the fact that it looked out on a wooded area, not much different from the one she had at her new home. “This is perfect,” she replied tearfully.
Herb reached out and touched her hand again. “Cindy told me about your office at home, saying the view helped you create, so I wanted your office here to be as inspiring as well. We’re excited to have you join us.”
The rest of the day was a busy one, as she and Cindy started working on a new scent for Herb’s latest project. Of course, most of it was already completed, as all she had to do was change a couple of the chemicals in her old formula, turning the scent she’d created for Logan’s Make-Up for men into something special for women instead.
* * *
Two hours later, Janet, one of her coworkers from her previous job called her on her cell phone. Skyler wasn’t surprised when Janet told her that the entire office now smelled as bad as a skunk and the whole building was going to have to be closed for at least a week to let it air out.
Just as she hung up from Janet, her phone rang again. Seeing by the caller ID that it was Lyle, she almost didn’t answer.
“Skyler, this is Lyle. I’m calling to apologize for what happened regarding your formula. I want you to come back to us and I will give you that raise.”
“Thank you for the offer, but I’ve already accepted a job with Dixon’s Cosmetics. In fact, that where I am right now, sitting in a beautiful office, looking out to the woods.”
He was distraught, because of his stupidity, he’d lost the best scientist he’d ever had and now she was employed at the last place he would ever want her to work. He knew that with her working for his competitor, his company would soon be in deep financial trouble. “You want me to beg for your forgiveness?” he asked, trying to keep his anger out of his voice.
She had to let him know, no matter what he said or did, she wasn’t returning. “No, as it won’t do you any good because you should’ve believed me in the first place.”
“He’s my son,” he said sadly.
“I understand that, but so far, he hasn’t created one good formula, so what made you believe this one would be any better?”
“You’re right and I’m sorry. While we are on the phone, I wanted you to know something has happened to your computer, and all your files have been deleted. Because of that, I’ll need a copy of your formula.”
“Sorry, I don’t have it,” she said with a smile on her face.
“I don’t believe you. I demand you to give me that formula,” he insisted.
“Just before I left your company this morning, I put the only copy I had into the shredder. If you want it, you’ll have to splice all the pieces together or use your son’s copy to create the perfume, as I destroyed my only hard copy of it,” she uttered sarcastically. Of course, she left out the part that she had taken some of the shredded strips from the pile and thrown them away in a different location. Nor did she tell him about the new formula she had made out the old one.
“His copy of the formula was bad as you well know,” he roared. “You didn’t have the right to destroy it as that formula was company property. Since I paid for your time to create it, I’m going to sue you, if you don’t give it to me the formula.”
“You can try, but since I created it at home on my own time, I don’t think you’ll win,” she uttered, with a big smile on her face. As she’d found that she could create better at home in front of the sliding doors that looked out over her back yard, than in the tiny room that was called her office. It was so small; she swore it use to be a broom closet before they made it into her office.
“I don’t believe you.”
“Maybe so, but can you prove that I’m lying? You can’t prove anything other than I produce a formula your son had in his hand, which you still have.”
“That may be true, but if you try to use that formula, I will sue you.”
Since she had changed a few compounds of her formula, changing it from a man’s cologne to a woman’s perfume; she was sure she was safe from being sued. “I’m done with you and your company, so I appreciate if you don’t call me again,” she stated loudly, then disconnected the call, then turned off her cell phone.
If nothing else, her experience with Roger taught her, completed or not, she always had to protect her formulations. So, from now on, not only would she keep her notes separate from the chemical blueprint, she would divide the recipe into two parts, keeping only the basic ingredients in her computer. The main part, the part that made her formula so unique, she would keep on her flash drive, locked in her safe at home. If someone did try to steal her next creation, the design would be worthless to them, the same way it had been for Roger.