“Those fucking bastards!”
“…”
“I can’t believe it. Really. I can’t fucking believe this.”
“…”
I shake my head and crumple the letter in my hand before throwing it on the ground. “They lied to us. They lied to my face!”
Mai Lin says nothing. She bends down to pick up the letter, uncrumples it and begins to read.
I lower myself into a chair and put my head in my hands. I have to rub my fingers on my temples to keep the walls of despair from closing in around me. I look around. The laboratory is still humming as if our world, my life didn’t just end. I rub a hand down my face as I begin to calculate everything I’ll lose when the university finds out we didn’t get approval for human testing. My job, my reputation, my laboratory, my work. I look to Mai Lin. My assistant.
She’s been a perfect assistant for the past two years of her grad program. A hard worker, diligent, and attentive.
In a flash of horror, I realize what this might mean for her. This is her research too. Her thesis is about our treatment for high blood pressure. What could she do? Would she lose her student visa as well?