CHAPTER 127: Three Weeks Later

POV: Selene Castellano

The advisory board meeting had gone exactly as Selene hoped.

Everything was out in the open and clearly recorded. But the two members who had been compromised decided to step down before things got ugly, opting for a quiet exit instead of a public showdown. James took it upon himself to apologize to the entire board for the mistake in their vetting process. Meanwhile, Amara had already put a new screening process in place, which was making waves in the nonprofit sector - it was even featured in two newsletters as a model for how to be transparent and accountable.

A week after that, Henderson Capital made a quiet move to shut down its philanthropic division. The SEC investigation was gaining speed, and Richard Henderson decided to step down from his own company instead of waiting to see what the results would be.

Diana's name was finally in the clear, it turned out she had never actually been implicated - the calls made using her phone number had been tracked and were found to have been made by Reeves himself, with no connection to her.

After three weeks, the whole conspiracy thing had become pretty routine - it was all about court dates, depositions, and a lot of paperwork. The excitement and danger had worn off, and now it just felt like a slow and tedious process. The system was just grinding along, doing its thing, and it felt like nothing was really happening.

Selene barely thought about it anymore.

She had a wedding to help plan.

Maya sat at the foundation office table, taking a break from her lunch to ponder a big decision. She had three different bouquet photos laid out in front of her. "The flowers are really throwing me off," she said, studying each picture carefully. Her fiancé, Kofi, had told her that the choice didn't matter, but Maya couldn't help feeling like it was a big deal - after all, she was the one who would have to look at the photos for years to come. Kofi's casual attitude was easy for him to have, since he wouldn't be the one living with the memories of their special day, captured in the photos, forever.

“They’re all beautiful,” Selene said honestly.

“That’s not helpful.”

"Look at those peonies," Selene said, nodding towards them. "They're definitely the ones that catch my eye."

Maya looked at her. “ Why those specifically.”

Selene smiled slightly, thinking of Avalon standing at a flower stall months ago, deciding gravely between bouquets like the choice carried weight.

“Just a feeling,” she said.

Avalon found her there twenty minutes later, having come to collect her for lunch, and stood watching the two sisters debate centerpiece heights with so much amusement.

He spoke up as soon as Maya walked out to call the florist, saying, "You're smiling."

“Am I?”

He pointed out that I had been smiling nonstop for three whole weeks, and it was pretty obvious.

"It's been a decent three weeks, all things considered," she said, reflecting on the past.

He sat down across from her.

He couldn't shake off the feeling that something was bothering him. It was what Reeves had told him - that Nene wasn't as perfect as he thought. She was complex, with her own set of problems, and not the idealized person he had made her out to be in his mind. This realization had been weighing on him, making him question everything he thought he knew about her.

“And?”

Avalon spoke up, his words coming out slowly. "He wasn't entirely wrong," she said. The woman in question was complicated, no doubt about it. She had made some choices that Avalon was still trying to understand. But being complicated didn't necessarily mean she was guilty. Avalon thought about this for a moment. The man had thought that by making her seem more complicated, he was somehow destroying her. But really, he was just making her more real, more human.

Selene reached across and took his hand.

“That’s growth,” she said.

“I’m trying,” he said.

That weekend, they took a spontaneous trip to the coast, just the two of them, with no particular plan or work-related agenda, and spent several hours enjoying each other's company, which was a welcome change after months of being busy with crisis after crisis, and it felt kind of strange to have so much free time on their hands.

They walked along a beach Selene hadn’t visited since she was a teenager, the wind sharp and cold, the Pacific doing what it always did with complete indifference to everything that had happened in San Francisco.

Avalon stopped walking and gazed out at the water, turning to say, "I want to ask you something."

“Ask.”

"Do you ever think back to when all of this began - the will, getting married, all of it - and wonder how it would all play out? I mean, could you have ever imagined that it would bring us to this moment, standing on this beach, with our lives turned out like this?"

Selene thought about it honestly.

She shook her head, her voice barely above a whisper. "I thought I could make it through the year, save some money to help Maya, and then just leave - never look back." Her eyes met his, and for a moment, they just stared at each other. "But the truth is, I never expected to feel this way," she said, her words spilling out in a rush. "I never thought I'd want to stay, that I'd actually want to be here with you."

“What changed?”

"It happened like that," she said quietly. "It started slowly, barely even noticeable, and then suddenly it all came together at once."

He smiled.

“That’s becoming our phrase,” he said.

She nodded in agreement, "It's usually the way things go, most true things happen like that."

They sat together on the sand, watching as the afternoon sun slowly made its way towards the evening. The air was quiet, with no need for words, just a comfortable silence that came from being in each other's presence. Time seemed to stand still as they simply existed, enjoying the peacefulness of the moment, free from any distractions or worries.

Eventually Avalon’s phone buzzed.

He glanced at it.

"Maya," he said, "wants to know if we are free on Thursday for a final dress fitting."

“Tell her yes.”

He typed out a response, and then he put the phone back down.

“Six weeks,” he said. “ Until the wedding.”

“Six weeks,” Selene agreed.

"I'm worried about them," he said, "considering all that went down outside her place."

Selene considered it.

Maya has always been stronger than people think, she said. She beat cancer, so she can handle a tough night that ended up being okay in the end. Maya's been through a lot, and she's still standing - that's something to be proud of. She's got a way of bouncing back from things that would be tough for anyone else. And even though this night was scary, it's over now and everything is fine. Maya will be just fine, she's a survivor.

Avalon nodded, looking back at the water.

“I’m glad it’s over,” he said.

Selene leaned against his shoulder.

“Me too,” she said.

For the first time in months, the silence between them held nothing but peace.