Rebecca Reed’s Sealed Testimony
Chapter 08 - Rebecca Reed’s Sealed Testimony
Hannah’s mother had not died from natural illness.
Rebecca Reed was a laboratory technician during the BN-17 trials. When infants developed respiratory problems, she copied the results and contacted a federal regulator.
Three days before the scheduled interview, she was injured in a warehouse fire.
She survived with lung damage but signed a settlement blaming faulty wiring. The payment funded Hannah’s education and her son’s medical care.
Rebecca kept one sealed statement with an attorney.
The attorney released it after seeing Hannah on the news.
Rebecca named Eleanor as the executive who approved continuing the trial after the first severe reaction. She also named Dr. Malcolm Kessler—Simon’s father—as the physician who changed the infant charts.
The Blackwood empire’s first major product, DreamNest Formula, was built using data from the illegal trial.
Advertisements claimed babies slept longer.
The company sold millions of cans before quietly changing the formula.
Families who reported breathing problems received settlements with confidentiality clauses.
Damian had grown up believing DreamNest saved the company.
It had.
At the cost of children no annual report named.
Miriam Cross traced the old settlements. Many families were poor, young, or dependent on Blackwood clinics. Some were told their babies had genetic conditions.
The same phrase used after Lily’s death.
Damian visited one surviving mother, Teresa Cole.
Her son lived with neurological damage after the trial.
Teresa placed a yellowed formula tin on the table.
“Your mother came to the hospital,” she said. “She held my hand and promised the company would find out what happened.”
“Did she know?”
“She brought the settlement papers in the same handbag.”
Damian could not apologize on behalf of an institution and expect meaning.
He asked what she wanted.
“The records. My son has spent twenty-eight years being treated for a mystery.”
Blackwood doctors still controlled access to the original data.
Damian no longer controlled Blackwood.
Eleanor did.
Naomi obtained a warrant for the archive.
The company claimed the trial files were destroyed in a flood.
Hannah remembered her mother saying executives never destroyed useful secrets. They moved them into places employees were taught not to enter.
The original Blackwood mansion had a cold-storage wine cellar beneath the kitchen.
As a child, Damian was forbidden to go there.
The room had no wine.
Only refrigerated cabinets.
Eleanor had been storing BN-17 samples and sealed research files beneath the same house where she prepared Oliver’s milk.
The police searched the cellar.
Most cabinets were empty.
One remained locked.
Inside was a ledger labeled FAMILY CONTINGENCIES.
Lily and Oliver each had separate sections.
May you like
Their illnesses had not been improvisations.
They had been planned responses to trust dates.
