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Chapter 1

Beaht flashed across stainless steel surfaces Music pulsed as the light bounced around the roo up speed

Orfaster?

Beneath the mirror ball, Ivy Grant spun in circles She knew the room’s layout She lived in this space

Day and night

For years

She could close her eyes, dance like a wo over Her head tipped back, sending her long, blond hair cascading over her shoulders Her lips parted as her hips found the rhythm Sort of SheBut she didn’t care

She’d fought

And finally, finally, she’d won

“This is ,” she bellowed “My—”

Thewide and her back to the door Fluorescent lights flickered on overhead And just like that, the pseudo-nightclub disappeared, leaving behind a less rooes The tools of her trade filled the state-of-the-art scientific research facility

Ivy crossed her fingers behind her back and turned to the door

If Peter cut ain, I’ll…

Sugar She’d sratulations for the tenth time today because the world needed a cure for cancer The Burke Initiative should be spending their investors’ hard-earned dollars on Peter’s research

But Peter wasn’t standing beside her stereo