Chapter 5 - The Employee Who Stopped Answering
Owen agreed to meet Mara at a coffee shop near the laboratory.
He never arrived.
His phone went directly to voicemail.
By evening, his company account had been disabled.
Daniel claimed Owen resigned after Asteria discovered accounting irregularities.
“Owen managed research materials,” Mara said. “Why would finance disable him before an investigation?”
“He stole proprietary technology.”
“Which technology?”
Daniel looked at her for half a second too long.
Then he answered.
“Nothing related to your mattress fantasy.”
Mara had not mentioned the mattress.
She felt the room tilt.
Daniel reached for her arm.
She stepped away.
“Where is Owen?”
“I don’t know.”
Mara contacted Owen’s sister.
Owen had called her the previous night, frightened. He said someone had altered security logs and blamed him for missing prototype material.
He planned to meet Mara before leaving town.
His sister had not heard from him since.
Mara called the police.
Daniel told responding officers that Owen was a disgruntled employee and Mara was experiencing a period of extreme anxiety.
One officer asked whether she had slept.
Daniel answered for her.
“She barely sleeps at all.”
The officer suggested Mara contact her doctor.
After they left, Daniel closed the door.
“You are humiliating yourself.”
“Owen may be in danger.”
“You are connecting a rash, a mattress and an employee resignation because you cannot accept that you need help.”
He said it calmly.
That made it worse.
Mara locked herself inside the bathroom and reviewed every photograph she had taken.
The marks appeared only on the side of her body touching the mattress.
Left shoulder.
Left hip.
Outer thigh.
She always slept on her left side.
When she slept in the guest room, no marks appeared.
She searched the mattress company listed on the delivery receipt.
The business existed, but the model name printed on her warranty did not.
The receipt had been issued by a third-party furnishing company called Cedar North Interiors.
Mara traced Cedar North to a registered agent in Delaware.
The agent represented another company.
Northstar Clinical Ventures.
Lena Hart owned forty percent of Northstar.
Daniel owned the rest through a private trust.
Mara stared at the corporate filing.
Her husband and research director had created a company together eleven months earlier.
One month before the H-17 batch disappeared.
Her phone rang.
It was Owen.
His voice was barely audible.
“Don’t trust the mattress cover.”
May you like
Then the call ended.
👉 Owen’s warning confirmed that the bed had been altered, but Mara still needed proof before Daniel could use her fear as evidence of insanity.
