POV: Maya SantosThe inquest hearing was at ten AM. Coroner's court, formal proceeding, everything gets said once and written down forever.I arrived early with Catherine and Ethan. David Chen was already there looking like he'd been waiting for nineteen years. Which technically… he had.The inquest coroner was Dr. Cecilia Coker. She looks like she’s probably in her sixties. Two court officers for procedural support. Diane Voss arrived at nine fifty-five. She had a personal lawyer with her and was carrying a sealed document case. Seventy-four years old. A lot smaller than I'd expected. Nothing like the woman from the Facebook post with the commendation plaque and the grandchildren. She looked like someone who'd been carrying guilt instead of pride for a very long time.Her lawyer started to make a preliminary statement. Diane interrupted him."I'd like to make my voluntary statement now if that's acceptable to the court."Dr. Walsh nodded and Diane sat at the witness table. She look

POV: Maya SantosThree weeks after the inquest life started settling into a new shape that didn't involve crisis meetings or urgent calls at three AM. Priya's first day at the Neural Research Institute was on a Monday and she showed up at seven in the morning because apparently that's what excited researchers do.Karan Mehta was already there by six fifty AM when she arrived. He was reviewing preliminary data from the Osei-Santos Fund's first grant cycle. Priya texted me a picture of him sitting at his desk surrounded by papers with the caption "competition already here."Karan's younger sister has the disease they're researching which means he's been fighting for three years with nothing but himself and determination and of course, a lot of rejected grant applications. Their first working conversation happened over the terrible Institute coffee in the break room. Priya told me about it later that night when we had dinner at the penthouse."He asked about my background and I told him

POV: Maya SantosWe spent three evenings writing the Nobel statement at the kitchen counter with coffee and my laptop and Ethan's memories of his father that he'd never really put into words before.The first evening was about who James Cole was as a person, not just as the researcher everyone knows.I asked questions and Ethan answered and I tried to shape the answers into language that was both accurate and human because the Nobel Committee had asked for scientific statements but they were considering a man who'd been murdered for his work and I just felt that needed to be in there somewhere."What do you remember most clearly about him?" I asked."The way he explained things. He never talked down to me even when I was a kid. He'd explain complex concepts using chess or cooking or whatever was around and then ask if I understood and actually listen to my answer."I wrote that down and kept going."What was he like when he wasn't working?"He smiled a little. "He would always argue a

POV: Maya SantosThe morning after the Nobel announcement we sat at the kitchen counter with coffee. Everything is really quiet, it’s like the world has finally quieted after something enormous has finished happening.I'd been waiting to tell Ethan about the pregnancy for four days and now seemed like the right time because everything else had settled and we were just sitting there being normal people having coffee on a Friday morning.I fumble with my fingers for a while. Then I blurted out, "I'm eight weeks pregnant."He put his coffee down immediately."Eight weeks?""Yeah. I found out four days ago but I wanted to wait until after the announcement because it felt like we should deal with one thing at a time.""You waited four days?""It was a significant four days."He looked at me."Maya.""I know. I should have told you immediately.""I was going to say thank you."I blinked."What?""For waiting until I'd finished crying about my father before telling me we're having a child."

POV: Ethan ColeFive years after the Nobel announcement we held the annual board meeting at Cole Industries on a Tuesday morning in October. Very professional and efficient, exactly what it should be after five years of building something that worked the way it was supposed to. And I sat at the board table, I couldn’t help but think back on everything, and how far we’ve come.The board included Dr. Rosamund Osei who'd accepted a non-executive position and attended by video from Edinburgh because she was seventy-six and had no interest in flying to the city for every meeting when technology worked perfectly well. Robert Cross sat in as honorary advisor, he'd moved to the city two years ago and he and my mother had dinner every Thursday which meant he was around anyway. The meeting ran from nine to noon covering everything that needed covering. Cole Industries was an ethical industry leader now, five consecutive years of responsible growth, the pharmaceutical acquisitions we'd made ope