CHAPTER 171: Both Things

POV: Selene Castellano

Edward looked at his hands.

"It started as a business decision," Edward said. "That's how these things always start." He looked up. "Richard and I and two other men. We identified neighbourhoods where property values were suppressed. We found a financial mechanism to redirect development funding away from those areas. We called it strategic investment allocation."

"You called it something that didn't sound like what it was," Avalon said.

"Yes," Edward said. "That's what we did."

"Did Nene know?" Avalon said.

Edward was quiet for a moment.

"She found out in 1981," he said. "She confronted Richard and he told her it was done. That it was already done and couldn't be undone and the best thing was to move forward."

"Did she believe him?" Selene asked.

"She believed that it couldn't be undone," Edward said. "She never believed it was right." He looked at Avalon. "She stopped speaking to me in 1982. Forty years of silence and I understood why." He paused. "I also agreed with the why."

"Why are you talking now," Avalon said. "You're eighty-one. You could have taken this to the grave."

Edward looked at him.

"Because your grandmother spent forty years trying to answer for something she didn't do," he said. "And she died before she could finish the answer. And you're sitting in front of me with your wife heavily pregnant—" He looked at Selene. "A child is coming and I would like that child to be born into a world where this has been said out loud by the person who should say it." He paused. 

The room was very quiet.

Avalon looked at this old man.

"The families," Avalon said. "The ones who were displaced, what do you want to say to them?" Avalon asked. "If you could."

Edward looked at the window.

At the garden he'd tended for forty years.

"That I knew what I was doing," he said quietly. "That I told myself it was business and I knew it wasn't. That I'm sorry in a way that doesn't ask for forgiveness because I don't deserve forgiveness. I deserve to have said it."

Selene reached over and took Avalon's hand.

He held on. 

Outside afterward they stood by the car.

The Marin morning was around them and the bay was visible in the distance when her phone rang.

Maya.

She answered immediately.

"I talked to Kofi," Maya said. Her voice was different. 

"And," Selene said.

"And I'm angry," Maya said. "But I also believe him. Both things."

"Both things," Selene said.

"Yes," Maya said. Then: "Lena. My blood pressure has been all over the place this morning. I checked it twice. It's high."

Selene went still.

"How high?" she asked.

Maya told her.

Selene looked at Avalon.

"Call Dr Okafor," Selene said. "Right now before anything else."

"It's probably stress from last….," Maya said. 

"Maya," Selene said. "Call her. Now."

"Okay," Maya said. "Okay, I'm calling."

She hung up.

Avalon was already starting the car.

"Maya," Selene said.

"I heard," he said. "Which hospital does Dr Okafor use?"

"She's not in labour," Selene said.

"Which hospital," he said.

"UCSF," she said. "But Avalon she's not—"

His phone rang.

Maya.

He answered on speaker.

"Dr Okafor wants me to come in immediately," Maya said. Her voice was very calm, in a way that suggested she was working hard to keep it that way. "She said right now and she said I shouldn't drive myself."

"We're already in the car," Avalon said. "We're coming."

They got to Maya’s apartment in eleven minutes.

Maya was standing at the door when they arrived, coat on and bag in hand.

She looked at Selene.

“Don’t make that face,” Maya said.

“I’m not making a face,” Selene said.

“You’re absolutely making a face.”

“Get in the car,” Selene said.

Maya got in the car.

Kofi was already there.

He’d arrived before them, which meant Maya had called him before she’d called Selene, which meant something about the order of people she reached for when she was scared.

He was in the back seat.

Maya sat beside him without discussion.

His hand found hers immediately.

She let it.

Dr Okafor met them at the entrance.

She looked at Maya first. Then at Selene. Then back at Maya with the focused efficiency of someone assessing two situations simultaneously.

“Come with me,” she said to Maya. Then to Selene: “You sit down.”

“I’m fine,” Selene said.

“Selene.” Dr Okafor’s voice. The one that ended conversations.

Selene sat down.

Avalon sat beside her.

Kofi followed Dr Okafor and Maya through the doors.

The waiting room was quiet.

Selene sat with both hands on her stomach.

Elena was still.

“She’ll be okay,” Avalon said.

“You don’t know that,” Selene said.

“No,” he said. “But I’m choosing it.”

She looked at the door Maya had gone through.

“It has to work now,” she said.

“Yes,” he said. “It does.”

Kofi came out twenty minutes later.

He sat across from them.

His looked frightened and was trying managing.

“Preeclampsia,” he said. “Early stage. Dr Okafor caught it.”

“What does that mean?” Avalon said.

“It means they’re monitoring her closely,” Kofi said. “It means she's pregnant, medication, rest and possible hospital admission for observation depending on how the next few hours go.”

“Is she okay?” Selene asked.

“She’s talking,” Kofi said. “She told Dr Okafor she doesn’t have time to be admitted because she has foundation work to finish.” He paused. “Dr Okafor told her the foundation could wait. Maya said it absolutely could not.”

Selene felt something loosen in her chest.

“She’s okay,”

“She’s arguing with her doctor about her schedule,” he said 

They admitted her for observation.

Standard protocol, Dr Okafor said. Just for 24 hours and medication to bring the pressure down. Monitoring throughout.

Kofi stayed.

He sat beside Maya’s bed and she talked at him about everything except what was happening and he listened to all of it without once suggesting she stop.

Selene stood in the doorway of the room at seven PM.

Maya looked at her.

“Go home,” Maya said. “You’re on modified bed rest. You’ve been in a car all day. Go home.”

“I’m fine,” Selene said.

“Lena.” Maya’s voice. The one that ended conversations.

Selene looked at Kofi.

“I’ll call you every hour,” he said.

“Every thirty minutes,” Selene said.

“Every hour,” Maya said. “I’m fine. Go home and rest for Elena.”

Selene looked at her sister.

She crossed to Maya.

Took her hand briefly.

“You scared me,” she said quietly.

“I scared myself,” Maya said. “Don’t tell anyone that.”

“I won’t,” Selene said.

She left.

In the car Avalon drove and Selene looked at the city going past.

She put her hand on her stomach.

“Elena,” she said quietly. “Your Aunt Maya is okay.”

Elena kicked once.

“Good,” Selene said.

They got home by 9pm

“I’m going to sleep,” she said. “Actually sleep.”

“Good,” he said.

She was at the bedroom door when her phone buzzed.

Kofi.

A text not a call.

Her pressure is coming down. Dr Okafor is pleased. She just told me the foundation’s Q4 projections need revisiting and then fell asleep mid-sentence. I think she’s going to be fine.

Selene smiled at her phone.

She put the phone down.

Went to bed and slept before her head was fully on the pillow.