Chapter 6 - THE CLINIC THAT NEVER EXISTED
There was no public record of Lakewood Clinic.
Nora searched medical directories, archived newspapers, property records, and licensing databases.
Nothing.
Daniel found one reference in a sealed federal document.
Lakewood was not a normal clinic.
It had been a private reproductive research facility operating outside Cambridge in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The facility closed after a fire destroyed its primary laboratory.
“Who owned it?” Evelyn asked.
Daniel sat across from her in a private conference room at Carter Biomedical.
Although Evelyn had not forgiven him, she needed access to information only he could obtain.
“A holding company,” he said. “The ownership trail leads through several shell corporations.”
“Connected to Ashford?”
“Possibly.”
“Possibly is not enough.”
“It was thirty-eight years ago.”
“The year I was born.”
Daniel nodded.
Nora opened another file on her laptop.
“I found a list of physicians who worked there.”
She rotated the screen.
One name stood out.
Dr. Adrian Vale.
Evelyn knew him.
Adrian Vale currently served as chairman of Ashford Global Pharmaceuticals.
“He was a fertility specialist?” Evelyn asked.
“Before becoming a pharmaceutical executive,” Nora replied.
Daniel scrolled through the records.
“There were allegations that Lakewood conducted unauthorized embryo research.”
“What kind?”
“The details are sealed.”
“Can you unseal them?”
“Not without a court order.”
“Then get one.”
“It would take time and require a legal basis.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“My mother attacked me through stolen medical records. My brother committed corporate espionage. A pharmaceutical company is trying to force me out. Is that enough legal basis?”
“It may be.”
Nora interrupted.
“There’s something else.”
She displayed a photograph of the Lakewood staff.
Margaret stood in the second row.
Evelyn’s breath caught.
Her mother appeared younger, smiling beside Dr. Adrian Vale.
On Margaret’s other side stood Julian Mercer.
“Mother worked there,” Evelyn whispered.
“Her employment history never mentioned it,” Nora said.
Evelyn enlarged the picture.
A fourth person stood partially hidden behind Julian.
Thomas Carter.
All four of them had been connected before Carter Biomedical existed.
Evelyn went directly to Chairman William Hale.
Hale had served beside Thomas for almost twenty years. He was one of the few directors Evelyn considered personally loyal.
She placed the Lakewood photograph on his desk.
“Tell me what you know.”
Hale looked at it and slowly removed his glasses.
“Where did you find this?”
“That is not an answer.”
He leaned back.
“Your father made me promise never to discuss Lakewood.”
“My father is dead.”
“My promise is not.”
“Someone is trying to take his company using secrets he helped bury.”
Hale looked older than he had the day before.
“What has Margaret told you?”
“That Julian may be my biological father.”
Hale closed his eyes briefly.
“And Julian denied it.”
“Yes.”
“What else?”
“She claims Julian created the original Helix treatment.”
“That part is true.”
Evelyn waited.
Hale folded his hands.
“Thomas, Julian, Margaret, and Adrian Vale met at Lakewood. Thomas was a financial consultant. Julian was a young molecular researcher. Margaret worked in patient coordination.”
“And Vale?”
“He controlled the experimental program.”
“What program?”
Hale looked toward the closed office door.
“They were studying inherited disease before genetic modification was properly regulated.”
“Embryo selection?”
“More than selection.”
Evelyn felt the room grow colder.
“Modification?”
“Attempts.”
“On human embryos?”
Hale did not answer.
“Was I created at Lakewood?”
His silence was enough.
Evelyn stood.
“What did they do to me?”
“I do not know.”
“You just implied I was part of their research.”
“Thomas believed Margaret underwent fertility treatment there. He did not know the full truth until years later.”
“Why was Julian uncertain about being my father?”
“Because the clinic used donor material without proper consent.”
Evelyn gripped the edge of the desk.
“So no one knows who my biological father is.”
“Margaret may know.”
“She claims she does not.”
“Then she is lying.”
“Why would Thomas hide this?”
“To protect you.”
“From what?”
Hale looked directly at her.
“From becoming evidence.”
The words remained in the air.
Evelyn slowly sat back down.
“Evidence of what?”
“An illegal human experiment.”
For several seconds, she could hear only the hum of the building’s ventilation system.
Then Hale added something even worse.
“Helix-R may not have been designed from your father’s disease.”
“What was it designed from?”
May you like
Hale pointed toward Evelyn.
“You.”
