Chapter 31: The Independent Review
Celeste tried to price the review before Rhea finished establishing it.
We met in a hearing suite leased by Helena Research Trust for the sole purpose of examining Sterling's license. The temporary license suspension already existed as an emergency measure. This proceeding would decide whether the record justified confirming it through the review period or whether Sterling had cured the breaches.
Under the license procedure, an external administrator had selected the three reviewers from a screened slate. Rhea introduced a research-governance lawyer, a records auditor, and a former independent safety chair. None had worked for Sterling, Mercer Nova, the trust, or my family.
"The panel controls the evidentiary record," Rhea said. "The trust controls neither its findings nor its vote."
Conrad read the recusal list without moving his face.
He could submit documents and answer questions. He could not vote.
Neither could I.
Neither could Julian.
Celeste leaned toward her microphone. "Sterling is prepared to improve the license economics substantially if the trust ends this unnecessary process."
The panel chair looked up. "Are you offering additional consideration in exchange for withdrawal of the review?"
"I am offering a commercial solution."
"State whether withdrawal of the review is a condition of the additional payment."
Nathan touched the edge of Celeste's folder. It was a small warning, late enough to be visible.
She smiled as if the interruption had been hers. "Sterling has supported this platform for years. A higher fee could protect the trust's mission without extending a dispute that damages every party."
"The trust's mission includes the conditions attached to the license," Rhea said.
"Conditions can be resolved."
"Records determine whether they were met."
Celeste's smile thinned. "Then consider the proposal withdrawn."
The stenographic reporter kept typing.
Nathan intervened. "A withdrawn settlement concept should not be characterized as evidence of noncompliance."
"It will not be," the chair said. "It will be recorded as a proposal to increase consideration if the review was withdrawn. Your objection will follow it."
That was the first result of the independent process.
Celeste could still offer more money later through the formal bidding channel. She could not erase the condition she had attached to this offer. Her instinct had been to purchase the absence of a question.
Julian sat two seats beyond Rhea. When the chair confirmed that nonvoting commercial parties would receive only procedural notices and public findings, he accepted without asking for an exception.
My father did not.
"Sterling cannot defend a license without access to every submission against it."
"Sterling will receive the materials it is entitled to answer," the chair said. "It will not receive protected patient information, trust deliberations, or a competitor's confidential terms."
"And Evelyn?"
"Dr. Sterling is the trust's nonvoting scientific observer. Her access is limited by the same order."
I signed the order.
It also prohibited me from sharing restricted material with Mercer Nova. Julian would know when a procedural session occurred and what the panel eventually released. He would not receive the evidence simply because he employed me. Celeste read that paragraph twice, searching for an advantage the language had already removed.
Conrad watched my pen. For five years, he had described me as someone who wanted control without responsibility. Now I accepted responsibility without a vote, and he could not turn that into a family demand.
The panel moved to its first procedural order: reconcile every item Sterling had cited in the old investigation with a source outside the narrative prepared after it.
No conclusions. No guesses. One line at a time.
The chair ended the open procedural session. Julian and the other commercial nonparticipants left before any restricted evidence appeared. A clerk collected their copies and issued them notices containing only the next session date.
The records auditor then projected a source-reconciliation plan for the authorized participants. Each claim from Sterling's investigation would be matched to something created outside the later narrative.
Most lines had a source category.
One did not.
The auditor flagged it for controlled inventory review.