LIVING ON THE EDGE

CHAPTER: 18

Sharon clicked on a blurred video of an interview with a local news channel. Elizabeth Reed was dressed in a black suit jacket and a crisp white shirt. One long shapely leg was crossed over the other, and a flat black shoe dangled in the air. Her tone was even and smooth as she answered the interviewer's questions. 

"What was it like to be one of two women in the Tennessee State University medical school, the year you entered?" The host was a dark-haired man with slight crow's feet at the corners of his eyes. He leaned in after asking the question, his eyebrows rising as he waited for an answer.

Elizabeth Reed sat with her back rigid and her face stern. She waited, sighing before answering. "It was exhausting. Constantly working to prove that I was as good as other students were absolutely exhausting, but it was not just at medical school. It carried over to my family, where all my brothers and sisters were getting married, working as executives in offices, or becoming stay-at-home moms. I was in medical school, single and childless. I was viewed as a failure of a woman."

"While all the while you were a trailblazer. Interesting. So, what it is like now that you have married and had your son? Is practicing medicine still as worthwhile as it used to be before you were a wife and a mother?" the host asked.

Elizabeth Reed threw her head back and let out a burst of hearty but controlled laughter. "It is never separate, but the roles have never meshed together, either. The three entities-mother, doctor, and wife coexist. I love all three of them, and I don't think that one undermines the others. Women can and should pursue their career goals. The husband and children will happen if they are supposed to, but no woman should make that her sole purpose in life."  

Sharon stopped the video, feeling admiration and intrigue. She wanted to meet this trailblazer.

Next, she read an article in a business magazine that provided a summary of Reed's love affair. Married in 1978, Elizabeth and Charles Reed first met in 1968 at the Tennessee State University, but their paths did not again cross for ten years. The article described how Charles and his friends had secretly laughed at Elizabeth's ambitious career choice, but when he fractured his hand and went to the emergency room, he was treated by a resident doctor named Elizabeth. The article quoted Charles Reed as saying, "I knew I had to marry her. A girl like that is rare." During that time, Charles was vice president of 'Reed Construction' a well-known construction company. He was also one of the most eligible bachelors in Tenessee. Their marriage, five months after the emergency room visit, had actually been the talk of the town.

Due to Elizabeth's age and dedication to her career, children were not expected, but six years into the marriage, Chase arrived. The article went on to provide detail about Chase's accolades and discussed his immigrant ancestor and the rise of George Reed's Empire. George Reed had come to the United States in the 1800s. Initially, the family had lived in California, but Chase's great-grandfather moved to Tenessee in the mid-1800s and started steel companies. By the end of the 1800s, the Reed name was associated with success and wealth. 

Chase Reed had continued in his parent's footsteps by being famous in athletics and winning laurels. He was equally good in his studies and was a scholar in high school. He had earned a scholarship to Harvard and had finished his medical studies there. He was a surgeon at Tenessee Medical Center. By all accounts, Chase seemed to be the perfect, predictable success story. The guy had money, good looks, and power. Adriana was a beautiful woman, but it hardly sounded like they moved in the same circles. How had they found another? Sharon thought. A man like Chase could have had any woman. Why did he pick up Adriana Davies?

Sharon considered that he might just be a selfless, warm-hearted guy, but from what she had seen so far, that was not the case. It was not that Chase was cold or arrogant, but he did not exude warmth either. He had qualities that were excellent for a surgeon, but not necessarily great for a marriage. 

Sharon opened a Word document and typed Chase and Adriana? After that, Sharon went back to researching the Reed family.

By the twentieth century, the Reed family fortune had multiplied thanks to a shift into the construction business. Chase's grandfather had started the construction business when there was a boom when housing and skyscrapers were being built at a rapid rate. Back when architecture and style mattered, the Reeds helped bring the classic, but affordable bungalows, and Mansions to life. Renowned architects came to Tenessee and partnered with the Reeds to sculpt immaculate churches as well as sprawling estates. Over time as the taste, as well as pockets of people, began to change, the Reed family began building simpler homes. Reed Construction built numerous low-income housing projects.

By the time Chase came along, the fortune was robust. Sharon had heard of Reed Construction but had not made the connection until now.

Most of the coverage she had read of Adriana's murder focused on the shock of a Nashville socialite being found dead in Maury County, but several other reports were mentioning Elizabeth Reed, and how she was a pathfinder for women in the field of medicine. She was one of the few women to complete medical school in the late sixties. The combination of the Reeds' wealth and Chase's mother's groundbreaking achievements made the Reeds a power couple and were amongst the movers and shakers of the society. Sharon was dealing with a powerhouse of talent, in Chase Reed. A quick internet search informed Sharon that Charles and Elizabeth Reed still ran Reed Construction out of an office in Nashville. Curiosity moved her to hop in the car and head to their office in Nashville.