CHAPTER 160: Rachel Smith

POV: Selene Castellano

Rachel Smith’s questions arrived Tuesday morning. Seven of them. Thorough and precise. Selene read them twice and then placed a call to Amara.

“She’s spoken to the families,” Selene announced.

“Gloria Reeves specifically,” Amara countered. “I know. Gloria called me this morning to let me know. She said she wanted us to be aware before the article comes out.”

“Gloria called you.”

“She said, ‘I want the foundation to understand what I conveyed to her. No surprises.’

There was a beat of silence.

“That’s someone choosing to remain partnered with us, even while holding us accountable.”

“Yes,” Selene agreed. “That’s exactly it.”

“Are you sitting down with Smith,” Amara inquired.

“Yes,” Selene confirmed. “Thursday, after the land trust update.”

“What’s your plan?”

“The truth,” Selene responded.

“That’s not a plan,” Amara retorted. “That’s a value. What is the strategy?”

“I’ll answer every question directly,” Selene stated. “I’m not going to dance around anything or sugarcoat. If something is true, I will affirm that it is true. If something was a mistake, I will readily acknowledge it was a mistake.”

“And what if she asks if acknowledgement is sufficient?”

“I’ll say no,” Selene replied. “And then I will explain what ‘sufficient’ entails and outline our actions to achieve that.”

Amara was quiet for a moment. “Okay,” she finally said. “That’s a strategy.”

Rachel Smith was younger than Selene anticipated, likely in her late twenties. They sat together in the foundation office. Rachel glanced at the whiteboard.

“What does the visual language convey?” she asked.

“Let’s start there,” Selene suggested. “Good.”

She explained it - the central question, the mark in the corner bearing Nene’s unmistakable handwriting, and the implication of constant forward momentum captured by “always working toward.” Rachel scribbled notes.

“Let’s start with the displacement bonds,” Rachel said. “Your press release mentioned Pierce Holdings causing documented harm. How much harm?”

“James Okonkwo has the complete financial modelling,” Selene informed her. “I’ll share that with you today. In essence, it represents thirteen years of development funding that was siphoned off and directly contributed to the displacement of residents in three specific neighborhoods.”

“Gloria Reeves’s family?” Rachel clarified.

“Yes,” Selene confirmed. “Among many others.”

“Is the land trust enough?”

“No,” Selene stated plainly.

Rachel looked up from her notebook. “No,” Selene repeated, “The land trust is just the beginning of ‘enough.’ ‘Enough’ would mean that Gloria Reeves’s mother could have her home back.

That’s beyond our capability.

What we can do, however, is ensure that the next generation of Gloria Reeveses has a place to live.”

“The land trust is six weeks behind schedule,” Rachel noted.

“Yes,” Selene admitted. “We encountered an unforeseen legal complication with a property assessment, and more significantly, we failed to communicate the delay to the affected families, which was an error. We’ve rectified that directly.”

“You’ve met with the families?”

“Yes, on Thursday,” Selene said. “Prior to agreeing to this interview. They deserved to hear directly from us before seeing anything in print.”

Rachel wrote again. “Why?” she asked. “Most organizations would have kept this under wraps.”

“We are not most organizations,” Selene replied.

“That sounds like a line,” Rachel observed.

“It likely does,” Selene conceded. “Let me try a different approach. I founded this foundation on a single question: what are we truly building toward?

If the answer to that question does not include honest engagement with the people we intend to serve, then the question itself loses meaning.

The families in the Mission have been deceived by systems for their entire lives. I have no intention of contributing to that narrative.”

Rachel was silent for a moment. “You’re twenty-seven weeks pregnant,” she stated. “Does that influence how you’re running the foundation?”

“I leave at noon on Tuesdays and Thursdays,” Selene said. “That is the only change.”

“Otherwise, your team manages things.”

“My team runs the foundation every single day,” Selene said. “With or without me in the room. That’s the essence of a well-functioning structure.”

“Amara Osei?” Rachel asked.

“Yes.”

“James Okonkwo?”

“Yes.”

“Nadia Okonkwo?”

“Yes. His daughter. She recently resigned from her corporate law position in London to join us two months ago.”

“Why?”

“She described Darius as treating him like a person,” Selene said. “That was sufficient reason.”

Rachel looked at her. “Elaborate on that,” she instructed.

Selene did. Rachel took copious notes.

The interview lasted ninety minutes. As it concluded, Rachel closed her notebook and cast another glance at the whiteboard. “The mark in the corner,” she said. “Nene’s handwriting.”

“Yes.”

“She never saw this, did she?” Rachel mused.

“No,” Selene said softly. “But she knew it was coming. In her notes from fifteen years ago, she wrote – what are we actually building toward?

She allocated funds for it twelve years ago.

She simply didn’t know how it would materialize.”

“Do you think she would approve?” Rachel asked.

Selene gazed at the mark in the corner - the singular letter of Nene’s handwriting woven into the fabric of everything they did. “I think she’d say it wasn’t enough yet,” Selene responded. “And then she’d roll up her sleeves.”

Rachel smiled - a genuine smile, the first in ninety minutes. “Good quote,” she said.

“It’s the truth, not a quote,” Selene corrected.

The article was published by Friday. It occupied the front page of the Chronicle’s Bay Area section under the headline: “The Foundation That Says No: How Pierce Foundation Is Rebuilding Trust One Honest Conversation At A Time.” Gloria Reeves was quoted, as was Evelyn Walsh and Selene.

The land trust transaction was finalized that same day, three weeks after the promised date. Gloria called later.

“My mother wants to attend the next community meeting,” she announced.

“Tell her she is more than welcome,” Selene replied. “Tell her there’s always an extra seat for her.”

Avalon read the article over breakfast. He then commented, “She said you were the most direct foundation leader she’d ever interviewed.”

“Is that a good thing?” Selene asked, her curiosity piqued.

“She intended it as a compliment,” he said.

“I know,” Selene replied. “The question is whether you think it’s a good thing.”

“I’ve always found you to be direct,” he stated. “The foundation merely provided a focal point for that directness.”

She looked at him, a small smile playing on her lips. “That’s quite possibly the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”

“I have a list,” he said, a glint in his eye. “And that doesn’t even crack the top ten.”

“Show me the list,” she demanded.

“No,” he declined.

“Why?”

“Because then you would know what to expect,” he explained. “And I much prefer the element of surprise.”

She stared at him. Elena kicked inside her belly.

“She agrees with you,” Selene said, a note of amusement in her voice.

“She has excellent judgment,” he remarked.

“She’s a Castellano Pierce,” Selene stated with a grin.