CHAPTER 121: The Recording

POV: Selene Castellano

She found him sitting at the desk, not in his usual chair but in the one across from it, the one meant for visitors, like he’d needed distance from his own space.

She sat down across from him.

“Tell me,” she said.

He opened up to her, sharing every detail. The recording that had been made, and how Nene had been aware of it before it was too late, not after the fact. He also told her about the phone call, the one where she had pleaded with Jonathan to put an end to it, but he had flat out refused. And then there was Reeves' accusation, the one that suggested her silence over the past thirty years was just as much about her own feelings of guilt as it was about protecting Avalon.

Selene just sat there, not saying a word, for what felt like a really long time after he was done.

“Do you believe him,” she said.

“I don’t know,” Avalon said. “ Part of me wants to dismiss it entirely. He’s a murderer trying to manipulate me. But part of me—” He stopped.

“What.”

“Part of me remembers her notes,” he said. “ The ones where she said she’d protected me so thoroughly she might have protected me from myself. What if that wasn’t just about the walls. What if some of that was about this.”

Selene reached across and took his hand.

"She spoke cautiously, 'Even if it's true, even if she knew what was happening and tried to stop him, but he wouldn't listen - that doesn't mean she's a bad person, Avalon. It just means she's a mother who couldn't control the decisions her grown son was making.'"

He spoke of how she had remained silent, even after all that time - thirty long years had passed, yet still she said nothing.

Selene's words were laced with a mix of sadness and frustration. "The truth is, she didn't want to admit that she knew what was happening and did nothing to stop it," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "Reeves may be right that people often don't make the most courageous choices when they're consumed by grief and guilt. But that doesn't excuse everything else she's done. Think about it - she's spent decades building a legacy, creating a foundation, and writing a will. That's not the actions of someone who's letting guilt eat away at them. It's the actions of someone who's trying to make a difference, to leave a mark on the world. You can't just dismiss all of that because of one mistake, no matter how big it was."

Avalon looked at her.

“You’re defending her.”

Selene spoke candidly about the complexity of it all. "Avalon, let's be real, she was no saint," she said. We've known that for a while now - all about Catherine, the secrets, the tough choices she made over the years. This is just another part of who she was, a complicated person with a lot of depth. It doesn't change everything we thought we knew about her, it just adds to the picture.

Avalon spoke up, "The recording, if it's actually real, I mean if Reeves wasn't just making that part up."

“What about it.”

"He claimed it would be proof that she was aware of everything," he said, "actual evidence, not just the last words of a man trying to manipulate others."

“Do you want to find it,” Selene asked.

He thought about it for a long moment.

He spoke candidly, "I'm not sure. One part of me is driven to uncover the truth, no matter the cost. But another part of me thinks it's better to leave it alone, just like she did for thirty years. Maybe some secrets are too expensive to uncover."

Selene squeezed his hand.

"Don't worry about it now," she said.

Agent Nunez gave a gentle tap on the doorframe of the already open office door.

"The suspect is now in our custody," she announced. "So far, he's refusing to cooperate, but our search of his apartment turned up something interesting - a key to a safety deposit box. We're in the process of obtaining a warrant to access the box and see what it holds."

Avalon looked up. “ What’s in it.”

Nunez wasn't sure yet, but after everything that had been shared tonight, she thought it would be a good idea to figure it out together. If they could find a recording, he wanted them to be there when they listened to it - not because they had to be, but because they deserved to hear it firsthand, rather than reading about it in a report later on.

Selene looked at Avalon.

"Tomorrow," she said quietly. "We'll do it then. Tonight, we're going home."

Nunez gave a slight nod, her expression serious. "We'll move on it tomorrow morning," she said. "By then, the warrant should have been cleared."

They walked out of the foundation office together.

In the car, Selene drove while Avalon sat quietly, staring out the window at the city passing by.

"Whatever is inside that box," Selene said after a while, "and whatever it reveals about her, it won't change what we're working towards. The foundation we're building isn't based on Nene being flawless. It's about the question she raised, and that question still holds significance, no matter what other truths come to light about her."

Avalon was quiet for a long moment.

He couldn't shake the thought of his father from his mind. What if she had actually known what was going on and had pleaded with him to stop, but he had refused to listen? That was the question that kept haunting him. He wondered, if he had been in her shoes, how would he have reacted? What would he have done in that situation? The more he thought about it, the more it bothered him.

"You can take your time," Selene said.

He spoke in a hushed tone, "I'm pretty sure I know how it would have gone down. I would have done the same thing she did - pleaded with him, seen him turn me down, and then lived with the guilt, never saying a word, because the other option was admitting I was powerless to save him."

As they stopped at the red light, Selene leaned over and gently took his hand in hers.

She said, "It's not a sign of weakness, it's just being human - loving someone you can't control."

Her phone buzzed in the cupholder.

She glanced at it, still driving.

Maya.

There was a single message that had been sent twenty minutes ago, and somehow she had missed it in the midst of everything that was going on.

Hey Lena, can you call me when you get a chance? I'm having some issues with the wedding venue booking and I just need to talk to someone about it. It's not a huge emergency or anything, I just want to vent about it and get it off my chest.

Selene's face almost curled into a smile as she felt a sense of relief wash over her, grateful for the mundane simplicity of the moment, a welcome respite from the turmoil of the night that had just passed.

Then a second text arrived as she watched.

Also—is it just me or has someone been parked outside my building for like an hour? Probably nothing. Kofi says I’m being paranoid.

Selene’s stomach dropped.

She looked at Avalon.

“Maya,” she said. “ Someone’s outside her building.”