LOGINShare
CHAPTER 114: The Name
publish date:
2026-06-20 19:50:38POV: Selene Castellano
She opened the email with her hands not quite steady.
One line.
Catherine. I’m so sorry. It’s Catherine.
Selene read it three times.
She sat perfectly still, surrounded by darkness, the only light coming from the phone in her hand, and a chill began to spread through her chest, settling in like a heavy weight.
Avalon stirred beside her.
“Selene,” he murmured. “ What’s wrong.”
She didn’t answer immediately.
He sat up properly now, alert.
“Selene.”
She turned the phone toward him.
He read it.
Read it again.
“That’s not possible,” he said.
"Selene spoke softly, saying, "Margaret wouldn't send it if she wasn't pretty sure, even if it means she might be wrong.""
“My mother,” Avalon said. “ You’re saying my mother had Robert Laine killed and now Whitmore?”
Selene just shook her head, "I'm not talking, Margaret is."
He was already calling.
Margaret picked up the phone right away, it was like she was expecting the call.
“Tell me everything,” Avalon said. No greeting.
Margaret spoke up, her tone cautious, like she was sharing a secret she'd rather not know. "I've uncovered some financial records," she said. "There's a payment from an account linked to Catherine, and it's been routed through a few shell companies to a security guard who worked at the facility where Whitmore was being held." She paused, collecting her thoughts before continuing. "What's really interesting is that the same account made a smaller payment back in 1987, just a week before Robert Laine's death." The implications were clear, but Margaret didn't spell them out - she just let the information hang in the air, waiting to see how it would be received.
Avalon's voice was barely above a whisper, but it had a flat, emotionless tone to it. "Why would she do something like this?" he asked, the words hanging in the air like a challenge.
"I'm still in the dark about the motive," Margaret admitted, "but I've managed to uncover a trail of money that might lead us to some answers."
"Get to the bottom of it," Avalon said, her voice low and urgent. "See what you can find out, tonight if possible."
“Avalon—”
“Tonight.”
He hung up.
Selene saw him slump down on the bed, his elbows resting on his knees, his head hung low.
"It just doesn't add up," he said, shaking his head. "She went through the whole trial, testified against Whitmore, and gave the prosecution everything they needed. So why would she turn around and kill him before he could even be sentenced? It doesn't make any sense."
"Perhaps she didn't want him to face punishment," Selene said, her words dripping slowly. "Maybe her goal was to keep him quiet, to prevent him from revealing secrets that could harm someone she cared about."
“Whose name would be worth two murders to protect.”
Selene didn’t answer.
She had the same thought as him, it seemed.
“Yours,” she said finally. “ If Whitmore named names at sentencing, who else might have been involved thirty years ago. Who else might have known and said nothing.”
Avalon looked up at her.
“Nene,” he said quietly.
They sat with that for a long moment.
Selene spoke cautiously, "If Whitmore had mentioned Nene as someone who was aware of the situation and chose to remain silent, then Catherine might have seen that as a legacy worth fighting for, no matter the cost."
“Even murder.”
“Even murder.”
Avalon stood. Paced to the window.
"He spoke about her testimony regarding Whitmore, saying it was honest and every word was true. He claimed to have witnessed her doing it and saw the toll it took on her."
"Sometimes things can be true, but that doesn't mean they're the complete story," Selene said.
He looked at her.
Selene's voice was laced with skepticism as she spoke, "Do you really believe she told the truth about what she knew, and then made certain that no one could ever question her further, under oath, about any other information she might have had or who else might have been involved?"
The room was very quiet.
“I need to see her,” Avalon said.
“Tonight.”
“Tonight.”
They drove to Catherine’s house just after midnight.
The lights were on.
Catherine had the door open before they even had a chance to knock, and she was already dressed and ready to go, giving the impression that she had been waiting for them all along.
Her gaze shifted between the two of them, but her face remained completely still, not a hint of emotion crossing her features.
“Margaret called you,” she said. Not a question.
“Is it true,” Avalon said.
Catherine stepped back from the door.
"Come on in," she said softly, motioning for me to take a seat. "Please, sit down. I want to tell you everything - all of it. I've been keeping it inside for far too long, and I should have been honest with you years ago."
Selene and Avalon stepped inside.
Catherine closed the door behind them.
"Catherine's voice was barely above a whisper as she revealed a shocking secret. 'Robert Laine discovered something that I had hoped would remain hidden from Nene,' she said, her words dripping with a sense of foreboding. 'It's about your father's death, and it goes far beyond just Whitmore's involvement. If the truth were to come out, it would be devastating - it would completely destroy our family.'"
“What,” Avalon said.
Catherine looked at him for a long moment.
"Have a seat," she repeated, her voice firm but gentle. "This is going to take some time, so you might as well get comfortable."
Latest chapter
The Inheritance Clause CHAPTER 216: What We Built
POV: Avalon PierceSelene called her father one final time that autumn, not out of obligation, but because something in her had settled enough to want closure rather than distance.He answered on the second ring, his voice older, steadier than she remembered.“I got married again,” she said. “Properly this time.”“I’m glad,” he said, and she could hear that he meant it.“I’m not calling to reconcile,” she said. “I want to be clear about that.”“I understand,” he said.“I wanted you to know I’m happy,” she said. “Genuinely happy and that whatever happened between us, I’ve made peace with it. Not because you deserve peace but because I do.”There was a long pause on the line.“Thank you for telling me,” he said finally. “I hope you stay happy, Selene. I mean that.”“Goodbye,” she said, and meant it as final in the gentlest way she could manage.She hung up feeling nothing but lightness.That evening, the foundation’s fifth anniversary approaching, Avalon sat with Elena in the study, the
The Inheritance Clause CHAPTER 215: Renewal
POV: Selene CastellanoAvalon asked her again on a Tuesday, the way he’d promised he would years before, except this time there was no crisis waiting in the wings, no Henderson Capital, no federal sentencing hanging over their heads.Just an ordinary evening, Elena and Robert asleep at Maya’s for the night, the two of them standing in the courtyard of the building they’d built together.“I want to marry you again,” he said. “Properly this time. Not because a will required it. Not because I finally got around to asking after everything settled. But, simply because I choose this, every single day, and I want to say it in front of everyone who helped us get here.”Selene looked at him.“You already asked me this,” she said. “The night Henderson’s resolution passed.”“I know,” he said. “I want to ask you where everyone can see it. Where Elena can watch her parents choose each other on purpose.”She felt her throat tighten.“Yes,” she said. “A thousand times, yes.”They married in the cour
The Inheritance Clause CHAPTER 214: Full Circle
POV: Avalon PierceFive years passed the way real years did, not in dramatic leaps but in the accumulation of ordinary days that eventually amounted to something enormous.Elena was eight now, sharp and certain and increasingly aware of the world she’d been born into. Robert was seven, quieter than his cousin but equally stubborn, the two of them inseparable in the way cousins raised in each other’s pockets often became.The foundation had expanded to three cities. The Riverside clinic had helped over four thousand families. Rosa Gutierrez had passed peacefully two years earlier, her building still standing, still in her family’s name.On a Sunday afternoon in October, Selene found Elena sitting on the floor of the foundation building, looking at the stone carving above the door from the inside, tracing the letters with her finger.“What does it mean,” Elena asked. “The question.”Selene sat down beside her.“It means we never stop asking what we’re actually trying to do,” she said. “
The Inheritance Clause CHAPTER 213: Eighteen Months
POV: Selene CastellanoThe building was finished in November, exactly on Kofi’s timeline, standing on Valencia Street with its wide windows and its courtyard already growing the peace lilies Maya had insisted on planting.Elena, now three and a half, stood at the entrance holding Avalon’s hand and staring up at the building.“Ours,” she said.“Ours,” Selene confirmed.Above the doorway, carved into simple stone, the same words that had opened everything two years before:What are we actually building toward?Beneath it, smaller: Lorraine Pierce, 1943-2024. She kept building.The opening ceremony drew three hundred people. Rosa Gutierrez, now with silver fully through her hair, cut the ribbon alongside Esperanza Reyes, who was eighty one now and needed a cane but refused any other assistance walking through the doors of the building her family’s story had helped create.Kevin Walsh’s program had grown to sixty young people. Evelyn stood at the front with tears she made no effort to hid
The Inheritance Clause CHAPTER 212: Ground
POV: Avalon PierceThe groundbreaking happened on a Saturday morning in March, exactly a year after Elena’s first birthday, and Avalon stood at the edge of the empty lot watching Selene explain the plans to a small crowd that had gathered without any formal invitation.Word had simply spread. Rosa Gutierrez told her neighbors. Kevin Walsh told the young people in his program. Esperanza Reyes, now eighty and moving more slowly but still sharp as ever, told everyone at her church.By the time the ceremonial shovels were handed out, nearly a hundred people stood on Valencia Street watching.“This isn't groundbreaking for us,” Selene said into the small microphone Amara had arranged. “It's groundbreaking for what this neighborhood already knew it deserved. We’re just finally building it.”The crowd applauded.Elena, nearly two years old now and increasingly opinionated about everything, stood between Avalon and Selene holding her own small plastic shovel that Maya had insisted on buying f
The Inheritance Clause CHAPTER 211: What Comes Next
POV: Selene CastellanoThe foundation’s third year opened with a decision that had been building for months.Selene stood at the whiteboard on a Monday morning with Amara, James, and Nadia gathered around her, and she looked at the mark in the corner that was Nene’s handwriting and said what she’d been thinking since Elena’s birthday.“I want to build something permanent,” she said. “Not just programs. A building. A physical home for the foundation that isn’t a corner office we outgrew a year ago.”Amara looked at her carefully.“Where,” she said.“The Mission,” Selene said. “On Valencia Street. Near Rosa’s building. Near the clinic. Somewhere the community can walk to instead of us always being the ones who have to reach out.”James was already thinking through the practicalities. “That requires capital we haven’t budgeted for. And it requires an architect who understands what this place needs to be.”Selene smiled slightly.“I already have someone in mind,” she said.Kofi looked at
The Inheritance Clause CHAPTER 28: The Breaking Point
POV: Avalon PierceThe deposition room feels different when you are the one under interrogation.Avalon had built conference rooms, sat through countless negotiations where millions hung on a single word. He had faced down investors, competitors, board members who wanted him gone but none of it pr
The Inheritance Clause CHAPTER 27B: The Deposition (Part II + Aftermath)
POV: Selene Castellano Pierce“Yes.”The word settled into the room with quiet certainty.Not loud. Not defensive. Just true.Sullivan did not respond immediately. He simply watched her, the way a man studies something he intends to dismantle piece by piece.“When did you fall in love with him?”Se
The Inheritance Clause CHAPTER 27A: The Deposition (Part I)
POV: Selene Castellano PierceThe deposition room looked exactly like it had on the video feed.Worse, actually—because this time, Selene was sitting in it.The beige walls felt closer than they had on screen, pressing in like they had something to prove. The fluorescent lights hummed faintly overh
The Inheritance Clause CHAPTER 26: What Love Looks Like
POV: Selene CastellanoThe prep session started at nine AM sharp.Selene sat in Diana’s conference room, coffee growing cold in front of her, while the attorney ran through potential questions with the efficiency of someone who’d done this a thousand times.“They’ll start with the background,” Dian
You May Also Like
I Fell For The Boy His Daddy Was A Bonus
LiLhyz959.4K viewsHer Accidental Billionaire Husband
Lexusstar writes692.6K viewsThe Heiress' Return: Six Brothers at Her Beck and Call
Night Eleven592.0K viewsPregnant and Favored: See You in the Morning, Young Master
Miss Yu925.6K viewsMy Ex Regrets Losing Me After I Married His Uncle
Nina Ang105 viewsMy Love Is Blind
Jay_Lay_Cul86 viewsThe Billonaire Silent Bride
Triple G114 viewsTHE HOUSE KEEPER
Peccy Noir82 views
