CHAPTER 12: The Reckoning

The Pierce Holdings boardroom occupied the entire forty-fifth floor.

Floor-to-ceiling windows framed the Bay, fog burning off to reveal Alcatraz. Eight board

members sat around polished mahogany. Margaret Chen offered Selene a smile. The others

watched with suspicion.

Marcus sat at the head like a king.

“Thank you all for coming,” he began, voice smooth. “I’ve discovered information that

requires immediate attention.”

Avalon’s hand found Selene’s under the table. They’d stayed up until three preparing. She

still hadn’t told him the full truth.

“As you know,” Marcus continued, “my nephew married suddenly. Within weeks of Nene’s

death. A will that required this exact marriage.”

“We’ve been over this,” Margaret said sharply. “Avalon met the requirements. The marriage

is legal.”

“Legal, yes. But legitimate?” Marcus pulled out a folder, slid copies across. “I hired an

investigator. What I found raises questions.”

Selene’s heart hammered. She forced herself to keep breathing.

“On March 15, 2014,” Marcus read, “Selene Maria Castellano was admitted to San Francisco

General Hospital. She remained there approximately six hours before discharge.”

The room went silent.

“This date coincides almost exactly with when she and Avalon ended their relationship.

Three days after their breakup.”

Selene felt the blood drain from her face. Avalon’s hand tightened on hers.

“I fail to see how a decade-old hospital visit is relevant,” Margaret said, but her voice had

lost some edge.

“It’s relevant because it suggests instability. A young woman, fresh from a breakup, seeking

emergency medical attention. And now, ten years later, she conveniently reappears when there’s eight hundred million dollars on the line.”

“That’s enough.” Avalon’s voice cut through the room. “You don’t know what you’re talking

about.”

“Don’t I? What happened that day, Ms. Castellano? What were you being treated for?”

All eyes turned to Selene. She could feel their judgment, curiosity, suspicion. Her throat

closed.

“The medical records are sealed,” Margaret interjected. “You can’t know what the treatment

was for. This is harassment.”

“Is it? Or is it due diligence? I won’t watch this company fall into the hands of someone who

married my nephew under false pretenses.”

“False pretenses?” Avalon stood, dangerously quiet. “Let’s talk about how you’ve

systematically tried to undermine my leadership for three years. How you’ve whispered to

board members that I’m too young, too reckless. How you’ve positioned yourself to sell off

pieces of this company the moment you get control.”

Marcus’s smile never wavered. “I’ve raised legitimate concerns about direction. That’s my

fiduciary duty.”

“Your duty is to this company. Not your bank account.” Avalon’s hand still held Selene’s,

anchoring her. “And my marriage is none of your business.”

“It became my business when it determined control of an eight-hundred-million-dollar

asset.” Marcus turned to Selene. “So I’ll ask again. What happened on March 15, 2014?”

Selene looked at Avalon. His green eyes held hers, and in them she saw something

unexpected. Not anger. But a question: Do you trust me?

She took a breath and made a choice.

“I was pregnant,” she said quietly.

The room erupted.

Avalon’s face went white. His hand in hers went rigid, then slack. She’d just detonated a

bomb.

“I was twelve weeks pregnant,” she continued, voice steady despite trembling hands. “With

Avalon’s child. And on March 15, 2014, I miscarried. I drove myself to the hospital. I spent six

hours there, alone, losing our baby.”

She couldn’t look at Avalon. Couldn’t bear to see the betrayal, the hurt.“I never told him,” she said to the room. “I never got the chance. By the time I got to the hospital, we’d already broken up. And after… after I lost the baby, I didn’t see the point.

What would it change? Nothing. It would only hurt him more.”

“So you left,” Marcus said, but his voice had lost some triumph. “You disappeared without

explanation.”

“I left because staying would have destroyed both of us. I was grieving and he was building his

empire. I thought I was doing the right thing.”

“And now?” Robert Chen, Margaret’s husband, spoke up. “Why come back now?”

“Because Nene asked me to.” Selene finally looked at Avalon. His face was unreadable,

shock and something deeper she couldn’t name. “She came to my apartment two months

before she died. Said she knew we’d never stopped loving each other and she was going to

fix it, whether we liked it or not.”

“This is absurd,” Marcus interjected. “You expect us to believe—”

“I don’t care what you believe.” Selene stood, released Avalon’s hand. “I married Avalon

because Nene was right. I never stopped loving him even if that makes me opportunistic or

unstable or whatever label you want, fine. But it doesn’t change the fact that I’m his wife.

Legally, and you, “uncle Marcus” can’t do anything about it.”

She walked out of the boardroom with her head high.

Behind her, silence. Then Avalon’s voice, cold as winter: “This meeting is adjourned.”

Selene made it to the elevator before her legs gave out. She leaned against the wall,

shaking. She’d said it out loud. After ten years of carrying the weight alone, she’d told him

in the worst possible way—in front of strangers, in a boardroom, as a defense against

Marcus’s attacks.

The elevator doors opened. She stepped in, pressed the button for the lobby.

She needed to leave. Needed air. Needed to process what she’d just done.

The doors were closing when a hand shot through, forcing them back open.

Avalon.

He stepped into the elevator, and the doors closed behind him, sealing them in together. He

didn’t speak. Just stood there, breathing hard, his eyes fixed on her.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

He still didn’t speak.The elevator descended. Forty-five floors. She counted each one, waiting for him to say

something, anything.

They reached the lobby. The doors opened.

Avalon hit the emergency stop button.

“Tell me everything,” he said, his voice rough. “From the beginning. No more secrets. No

more half-truths. Tell me everything.”

The elevator hung suspended eerily between floors, emergency lights casting everything in

amber.

Selene’s back was against the wall. Avalon stood three feet away, far enough to maintain

distance, close enough that she could see the muscle jumping in his jaw.

“From the beginning,” he repeated.

So she told him.

About finding out she was pregnant. The terror mixed with hope. How she’d bought the test

at a drugstore where no one would recognize her. How she’d taken it in the campus library

bathroom, hands shaking.

“I was going to tell you that weekend,” she said. “We’d planned to drive to Half Moon Bay.

But then Thursday happened.”

“What happened Thursday?”

“Your mother showed up at my apartment.”

Avalon’s eyes went dark. “My mother.”

“She let herself in. I came home from class and she was sitting at my kitchen table.” Selene

wrapped her arms around herself. “She had the pregnancy test. She’d gone through my

things.”

“Jesus Christ.”“She said if I told you, she’d destroy everything you’d built. The trust fund—she’d have it

revoked. Your position at Nexus—she’d convince the board you were irresponsible. She had

a lawyer with her. Documents ready. A non-disclosure agreement. Two hundred thousand

dollars to disappear.”

Avalon’s hands clenched into fists. “She paid you to leave me.”

“No. I didn’t take the money. I told her to go to hell.” Selene’s voice cracked. “I told her I was

going to tell you everything. That you deserved to know. That she had no right—”

“But you didn’t tell me.”

“I was going to. The next day. Friday morning. I was going to come to your apartment before

your pitch meeting and tell you everything.” She pressed her hand to her mouth, trying to

hold back sobs. “But Friday morning I woke up bleeding.”

The elevator was completely silent except for her breathing.

“I drove myself to the hospital. I knew what was happening. I’d read enough articles, enough

stories. I was losing the baby. Our baby. And I thought… I thought maybe your mother was

right. Maybe it was a sign. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to tell you. Maybe loving you meant

letting you go.”

“That wasn’t your decision to make.” Avalon’s voice was low, dangerous. “That baby was

mine too. I had a right to know. I had a right to be there.”

“I know.” Selene slid down the wall until she was sitting on the elevator floor, her strength

completely gone. “I know. And I’ve regretted it every single day for ten years. But I was

twenty-two and terrified and grieving, and your mother was so convincing. She said you had

your whole future ahead of you. That a teen pregnancy scandal would ruin everything. That

I’d be trapping you in a life you didn’t want.”

“Stop.” Avalon’s voice cracked. “Stop saying what she said. Tell me what you thought. What

you felt.”

Selene looked up at him through tears. “I thought I was protecting you. I felt like I was dying.

I felt like every choice I made was wrong, but staying was wronger than leaving. I felt like if I

loved you enough, I had to let you have the life you deserved without being weighed down

by loss and grief and obligation.”

“You are the stupidest, most selfless, most infuriating person I’ve ever met.” Avalon sank

down across from her, his back against the opposite wall. “You took everything on yourself.

You decided alone. You left me wondering for ten years what I’d done wrong.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong.”“Neither did you!” His voice rose, echoing in the small space. “You were scared and grieving

and my mother manipulated you. But you should have told me. You should have let me

choose.”

“I know.”

“Say it again.”

“I know. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

They sat in silence, the elevator suspended between floors, between past and present,

between everything that was and everything that could have been.

Finally, Avalon spoke. “My mother.”

“Yes.”

“My mother threatened you. Paid investigators. Had lawyers ready.” His voice was hollow.

“She’s done a lot of things I’ve disagreed with, but this… this is unforgivable.”

“Avalon—”

“No.” He stood, hit the emergency button to restart the elevator. “We’re going to see her.

Right now.”

“What? No. We can’t just—”

“Watch me.”

The elevator descended to the lobby. The doors opened. Avalon stepped out, then turned

back to offer Selene his hand.

“Come with me,” he said. “Please. We’re finishing this. Together.”

Selene took his hand and let him pull her to her feet.

They drove to Pacific Heights in tense silence, Avalon’s jaw tight, his hands gripping the

steering wheel. Selene watched the city slide past, her heart pounding. She’d avoided

Catherine Pierce for ten years. Now she was about to confront her.

The Pierce family home loomed at the top of the hill, a Victorian mansion painted in perfect

cream and gold. Avalon parked in the circular drive, didn’t knock, just walked straight

through the front door.

“Mother!”

Catherine Pierce emerged from the drawing room, elegant in cream linen, her expression

curious. “Avalon. What a surprise. I didn’t know you were—” She stopped when she saw

Selene. “Oh.”“We need to talk,” Avalon said. “About March 2014. About the pregnancy. About the threats

you made.”

Catherine’s face went carefully blank. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yes, you do.” Avalon’s voice was ice. “And you’re going to tell me everything. Or I walk out

that door and you never see me again.”

Catherine looked between them, calculating. Then her expression shifted into something

almost like regret.

“Come in,” she said quietly. “We should sit down for this.”

But as they followed her into the drawing room, Selene saw something that made her blood

run cold.

Marcus Pierce sat on the sofa, a satisfied smile on his face.

“Hello, nephew,” he said. “Mother. I think it’s time we had a family meeting