Chapter 10 - Emma’s File
Emma had no disease.
No dangerous mutation.
Project Continuity tracked metabolic marker associated with response to certain pediatric nutrition formulas.
Mostly research.
Potentially useful for infant feeding products.
Carter Biologics developed diagnostic test related to marker.
Emma’s data contributed.
She had technically consented during Marlow stay.
But form language was confusing.
Future descendants clause buried.
Ethically weak.
Potentially invalid.
Linda discovered years later and tried revoke.
Was revocation honored?
No.
Database marked:
REVOCATION INCOMPLETE — DESCENDANT DATA RETAINED.
That was what Mia saw.
She realized Emma’s unborn baby could enter system automatically.
She wanted stop it.
Then why vanish after meeting Linda?
Linda’s notes included name:
JONATHAN REEVES.
Former Carter research compliance officer.
He had helped Linda challenge consent.
Mia contacted him.
Jonathan disappeared from professional records soon after.
Not dead.
Changed career.
Located in Oregon.
He agreed talk.
He remembered Mia.
“She was smart. Angry.”
“What did you tell her?”
“That Project Continuity consent was defective.”
“Anything else?”
“Yes.”
“There was internal whistleblower file.”
Against Samuel?
“No.”
Against Eleanor?
“No.”
“Then who?”
Jonathan looked at Ethan.
“Your father.”
Ethan’s father, Robert Carter, had died ten years earlier.
Robert founded research partnership.
Whistleblower accused him of knowingly allowing shelter families to be recruited through vague consents.
Robert denied.
Internal review found failures but no deliberate coercion.
Why hide?
Company settled quietly.
Eleanor knew.
Mia found.
She began believing entire Carter family built research on vulnerable families.
Partly true.
But did that make her disappear?
Jonathan said he gave Mia encrypted archive.
Then told her go home and bring lawyer.
She refused.
She wanted one more thing.
Proof current program still active.
Three weeks later she broke into research archive.
Was caught.
By Samuel.
Again.
This time Samuel did not release her immediately.
He called Eleanor.
Eleanor arrived.
They argued.
Then something unexpected.
Mia had panic attack.
Nora’s white mixture was nearby in research reference fridge.
Samuel offered nutrition drink.
Mia refused.
Eleanor insisted.
Did they force it?
Eleanor admitted giving small amount.
There.
White liquid connected to Mia too—not night she initially left, but later archive confrontation.
It contained antihistamine?
Eleanor added it.
Why?
“To calm her.”
Same justification.
Mia became sleepy.
Then Eleanor drove her somewhere.
“Where?”
“Hospital.”
No admission record under Mia Carter.
Because she used alias.
Eleanor said protecting media exposure.
Again secrecy.
At hospital, Mia was assessed, discharged next morning.
Then?
“She left with someone.”
“Who?”
“Jonathan Reeves.”
Jonathan stared when confronted.
“That’s not true.”
Eleanor insisted.
Records showed unknown man signed discharge as “J. Reed.”
Not Reeves.
Who was J. Reed?
Ava whispered:
“James Reed.”
Her foster advocate.
The person who helped her leave Cedar Ridge.
May you like
James Reed had helped both girls.
And nobody knew where he was now.
