Chapter 5 - Project Harbor Was About Noah
Whitmore Medical Systems had funded experimental pediatric genetic
research years earlier.
Ethan knew the program existed.
He did not know Noah had ever been involved.
Hospital records showed Rachel enrolled during pregnancy in what she
believed was a routine hereditary-disease screening study.
Her consent forms had later been altered.
Noah’s fetal genetic data became part of Project Harbor.
Ethan was furious.
“Who authorized this?”
The compliance director gave him the answer.
Marcus Hale.
But Marcus had used authorization credentials belonging to Ethan’s late
father, Richard Whitmore.
Victoria frowned.
“Why would Sophia care about Noah’s patient file?”
The answer came from a former Harbor researcher, Dr. Elena Park.
Project Harbor had discovered a rare genetic marker in Noah.
Not an illness.
A potentially valuable resistance trait connected to a therapy the
company later patented.
Noah’s biological data had contributed to research worth hundreds of
millions.
Rachel discovered it shortly before her death.
She demanded Noah’s data be removed and all derived rights placed into
an independent benefit trust.
Marcus resisted.
Sophia’s connection was more personal.
Dr. Park revealed that Sophia had also been a Harbor patient as a child.
Her mother had participated in an early trial.
Sophia believed the company’s experimental treatment caused her mother’s
later illness.
Ethan stared.
“So this wasn’t just theft.”
“No,” Victoria said. “It was revenge.”
Sophia finally spoke.
“My mother died begging Whitmore to admit what they did.”
Ethan looked at her.
For the first time, her anger seemed older than their relationship.
“Then why come after Noah?”
“I wasn’t coming after him.”
“You prepared a psychiatric evaluation to undermine him.”
“I needed control of the trust.”
“That is coming after him.”
Sophia cried.
“I wanted the Harbor files.”
“Then you could have told me.”
“Your family buried everything.”
“My father did. Marcus did. Maybe others did. Noah didn’t.”
Sophia looked at the child.
Her face changed.
Noah asked quietly:
“Were you going to send me away?”
Sophia could not answer.
That silence mattered more than any explanation.
Police escorted her out for questioning.
Ethan watched the woman he almost married leave the ballroom.
Then Dr. Park gave him another file.
Rachel had secretly requested a full audit of Project Harbor.
The auditor’s name made Victoria stand.
Daniel Mercer.
Ethan knew him.
Daniel had died in the same crash as Rachel.
At least, that was what everyone had been told.
Dr. Park shook her head.
“Daniel wasn’t in Rachel’s car.”
Ethan stared.
May you like
“Then whose body did they identify?”
Nobody knew.
