Chapter 4: What Selina Didn't Tell Me
Selina moved fast for a woman her age.
She was across the room and had Godfrey's phone in her hand before he could stop her.
"Give that back," Godfrey said.
"This is family business."
"Give it back, Selina." My voice was flat.
She looked at me, then at Godfrey, then at the phone in her hand.
Her fingers tightened around it.
I walked over and held out my hand.
We stood like that for three full seconds.
Then she placed the phone in my palm.
The text was from someone saved as *Dr.
R.
Mensah — Oncology.*
*Godfrey, I've been trying to reach your family for two weeks.
Mrs.
Phedra missed her last four scheduled appointments.
Her chart shows no contact from next of kin.
If she does not resume treatment within the next ten days, we will need to discuss palliative options.
Please call the clinic immediately.*
I read it twice.
The words palliative options sat in my chest like a coal.
I turned to Phedra.
"When did you last see Dr.
Mensah?"
She counted quietly.
"Four months ago."
"Why did you stop going?"
"I didn't stop." Her voice was steady but her hands were not.
"Selina told me the appointments had been cancelled.
That the doctor had moved practices.
She said she was finding me a new specialist."
I looked at Selina.
"Is that true?"
Selina said nothing.
"Did you cancel her appointments?"
"I was managing the situation."
"Managing it." The words came out of me slowly.
"She has cancer.
She missed four months of treatment because you told her the doctor moved.
And you were managing the situation."
"The treatments weren't working," Selina said.
"The doctors were just taking money.
I read about it — these clinics, they string patients along, they—"
"You read about it." I set Godfrey's phone on the table.
"You read about it, and you decided to override her oncologist.
For a woman with cancer.
Who is not your patient, not your daughter, not your responsibility to manage."
"She is my son's wife—"
"She is my wife." The room went quiet.
"She is my wife, and she has been sleeping in a storage shed, and she has not eaten since yesterday, and she has missed four months of cancer treatment because you lied to her.
And I have been sending money every single month that paid for that SUV and that auto shop and those granite countertops while my wife was dying in your backyard."
Phedra made a small sound.
I reached back and found her hand without looking.
Godfrey stood up.
His voice was different now — lower, stripped of the bluster.
"I didn't know about the appointments," he said.
"I knew about the money.
I knew about the loan.
But I didn't know she cancelled the appointments."
"Godfrey—" Selina started.
"I didn't know," he said again, and this time he was saying it to Phedra.
Phedra looked at him for a long moment.
"I know," she said quietly.
"You were cruel.
But you didn't know that part."
The distinction seemed to cost Godfrey something.
He sat back down heavily and didn't speak again.
Selina changed her footing.
When she spoke, her voice had shifted — softer, almost reasonable.
"Damian.
You're upset.
You've just arrived, you're tired, you've heard one side of things.
Let's sit down tomorrow when everyone is calm and talk through this properly.
Phedra needs rest.
We all do."
I looked at her.
My mother.
The woman who had raised me, who I had trusted with everything I earned, who had worn my wife's anniversary necklace while my wife slept in a shed.
"We're going to the hospital," I said.
"Tonight."
"Damian—"
"And tomorrow morning, I'm meeting with a lawyer."
Selina's composure cracked for just a moment.
Something moved behind her eyes — not guilt, but calculation.
"If you do that," she said carefully, "you will destroy this family."
"You already did," I said.
"I'm just the one who showed up to see it."
I picked up my suitcase.
I put my arm around Phedra.
She leaned into me like someone who had been standing alone in a strong wind for a very long time.
We were almost at the door when Selina said it.
"The settlement money." Her voice had gone very still.
"The million dollars.
If you go to a lawyer, I will tell them Phedra convinced you to cut off your own family.
I will tell them she manipulated you from the beginning.
I will make sure every cent of that settlement is tied up in disputes for years."
I stopped.
Phedra's hand tightened on my arm.
I turned around slowly.
"What settlement?" I said.
Selina blinked.
"The one you announced," she said.
"When you came in.
You said you'd received a million-dollar settlement."
May you like
I looked at her for a long moment.
Then I said: "I never announced any settlement."
