Chapter 13 - what Thomas discovered about Northstar
Thomas Carter’s private storage unit still existed.
Rachel knew about it.
Michael did not.
Their father rented it under the company name after the dispute over Luke.
“Why didn’t you open it before?” Michael asked.
“Dad told me it was business archives.”
They visited with attorneys and investigators.
Inside were banker boxes.
Old Carter Manufacturing ledgers.
Medical correspondence.
Family trust files.
And a locked gray case.
Rachel knew the combination.
Luke’s birthday.
Inside:
NORTHSTAR.
Thomas had investigated the company for years.
Northstar originated from a private hereditary-cardiac research consortium founded in the 1980s.
The Carter family participated legitimately.
Blood samples had been donated voluntarily.
Medical histories shared.
Thomas believed in the work at first.
Then corporate ownership changed.
The consortium was acquired.
Research data became valuable for pharmaceutical development.
Consent forms from the 1980s were broad by modern standards.
Northstar began contacting descendants.
Thomas objected.
He did not want grandchildren’s data automatically absorbed into a private archive.
He wrote:
Our participation was not permission for perpetual access to unborn generations.
Michael stared.
That line explained everything.
Northstar wanted continuity.
A multi-generation dataset.
Luke.
Noah.
Possibly future descendants.
But why pay Diane?
Thomas’s notes:
Diane sees Northstar as harmless family research and income that properly belongs to us.
She does not understand that consent cannot be inherited.
Rachel whispered:
“So Mom thought she was monetizing something Dad had already agreed to.”
Perhaps.
But after Thomas explicitly objected, she continued.
Another note:
S. Hale continues acting as medical intermediary despite my instructions to stop.
G. Price says family trust language permits coordination. He is wrong.
Thomas had fought them.
Then became ill.
The same Hale who treated him also mediated Northstar communications.
No evidence Northstar harmed Thomas.
No evidence of murder.
But Thomas’s declining health reduced his ability to fight.
He tried to rewrite the trust.
Failed before death.
Then the old arrangement waited.
No grandchild born to Michael yet.
Rachel had cut contact and blocked access to Luke.
Northstar’s Carter dataset went dormant.
Until Clara became pregnant.
Thomas had warned Rachel.
Not just because Diane might control money.
Because trust authority could be used to grant access to family medical records.
Michael opened another envelope.
For Michael.
Thomas:
If your first child is born after I am gone, do not sign any “family continuity,” “medical history,” or “research support” document without independent counsel.
Michael’s eyes filled.
He had almost done exactly that.
Diane’s cream folder included an appendix he had never read.
MEDICAL INFORMATION COORDINATION AUTHORIZATION.
Not mandatory.
But packaged with the co-trustee paperwork.
If Michael signed all tabs as instructed, Diane could request certain health records on Noah’s behalf.
Northstar would gain continuity data.
Diane would receive financial compensation through Hale-Price.
Carter Household Services would receive trust fees.
Everybody profited.
Except the child whose information was being treated as family property.
Clara stood.
“I want Noah removed from every family research file.”
Her attorney explained:
“We can send formal revocations and preservation notices.”
“Do it.”
Michael nodded.
“Everything.”
Rachel asked the same for Luke.
Then Northstar finally responded through outside counsel.
The company denied requesting unauthorized data.
It admitted making “research-continuity grants” to family advisory entities.
It claimed those grants were conditioned on lawful consent.
In other words:
Northstar would argue Diane was responsible for how consent was obtained.
Diane would argue Northstar’s money encouraged the scheme.
Hale would blame misunderstanding.
Gerald would say he only drafted paperwork.
The pattern again.
Everyone occupying a narrow lane.
No one claiming responsibility for the road.
Then investigators discovered Northstar had one active consultant assigned to the Carter family.
Name:
Dr. Eleanor Voss.
Michael did not recognize her.
Rachel did.
Her face drained.
“No.”
“What?”
“She was in the hospital after Luke was born.”
“Who was she?”
“Mom said she was a family friend.”
Rachel pulled an old photograph.
Diane standing beside Rachel’s hospital bed.
Gerald Price.
Dr. Hale.
And a younger Eleanor Voss.
On the back, Diane had written:
Continuity team.
Michael stared.
The “team” existed long before Clara.
And perhaps long before Rachel.
Then Thomas’s final Northstar note:
E.V. believes the Carter hereditary line contains something Northstar has not found elsewhere.
Michael frowned.
“What?”
The next page had been torn out.
Again.
May you like
Someone had systematically removed the exact explanation from Thomas’s files.
👉 Thomas believed Northstar wanted the Carter bloodline for something more specific than ordinary heart research—but every page explaining what made the family unusual had been deliberately removed.
