Chapter 36
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Silas Mercer was a man of his word. Less than forty-eight hours after being thrown off the Whitmore estate, Aegis Therapeutics launched a massive, highly coordinated public relations assault against the foundation.
Noah and Evelyn sat in his office, watching a prominent morning news program. The screen showed Silas Mercer looking deeply sorrowful and compassionate, sitting opposite a sympathetic journalist.
"It truly breaks my heart," Silas was saying on the television. "Aegis Therapeutics offered the Whitmore Foundation fifty million dollars and free access to our revolutionary, life-changing treatment. We wanted to help those poor children walk again. But the leadership there—a very young, inexperienced chairman—rejected it out of hand. They are actively denying disabled children a miracle cure simply to maintain their own total control over the facility."
The news anchor gasped, clutching her pearls. "That is shocking, Dr. Mercer. Why would they deny a cure?"
"Because curing the children would put them out of business," Silas lied effortlessly. "They need the children to stay in wheelchairs to keep their own charitable donations flowing."
Evelyn muted the television, her face flushed with absolute rage.
"That arrogant, lying bastard," Evelyn hissed, pacing the room. "He is twisting the narrative completely. Our donor hotlines have been ringing off the hook all morning. People are furious. They think we are intentionally keeping children sick for profit."
"It's a classic pressure tactic," Marcus Vance said, entering the office with a stack of printouts. "Aegis has deployed bot farms on social media to amplify the interview. There is already a hashtag trending demanding that you resign, Noah."
Noah looked out the window at the therapy center. He could see parents arriving with their children, looking confused and anxious, whispering among themselves as they walked through the doors. The trust they had spent years building was being actively poisoned.
"We need to release a statement," Marcus advised. "We need to explain exactly why we rejected the trial."
"If we just release a standard PR statement, it becomes a he-said, she-said scenario," Noah replied, turning back to face them. "Silas has a billion-dollar marketing machine. He will drown us out. We can't just play defense. We have to prove he is lying about the drug's safety."
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"How?" Evelyn asked. "He controls the official data."
"Maya," Noah said, his eyes sharpening with determination. "She knows the truth about AT-7. If we can find the patients who suffered from the side effects, we can put them in front of a camera. We fight his lies with living proof."
