Library

Home / Romance / The Inheritance Clause / CHAPTER 158: May

CHAPTER 158: May

Author: Mystique

publish date: 2026-07-13 16:02:01

POV: Selene Castellano

May arrived, warm and assured.

She had finally stopped fighting the fatigue. It wasn’t that she had surrendered, but rather that Avalon had said something three weeks ago that she’d been chewing on incessantly ever since. “What do you want Elena to see?” It was the question that had kept her up at night. She wanted Elena to see someone who knew when to stop. And so, she’d stopped going into the office on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She’d delegated her responsibilities at the foundation to Amara, James, and Nadia, who had joined them two weeks after they resigned from their posts in London. "You're terrifying," Nadia had exclaimed on her first day. "Why?" Selene had asked. "Because you looked at me for two hours, decided I was worth uprooting my life for, and didn’t flinch when you threw it all away. What if you'd been wrong?" "I wasn't," Selene had responded. "You didn't know that." "I knew," Selene had assured her. "You spoke of Darius like he was a person." "Right," Nadia had murmured. "Okay," and had turned to go find Amara.

On a warm May afternoon, free from work, Selene made a visit to Dr. Ruth’s office at UCSF. Not for any physical ailment.

It was more a general check-in, a conversational appointment that had become a regular fixture, a friendship cemented through unusual circumstances.

Tea was already brewing between them as the afternoon sun filtered into the office. "Twenty-six weeks," Dr. Ruth observed. Selene nodded.

"She's very active and has an opinion on everything."

"All Pierces do, apparently," Dr. Ruth replied with a twinkle in her eye. "She's a Castellano Pierce," Selene stated with a smile.

"Then she has opinions on everything, she’s right about half of them, wrong about the other half, and absolutely convinced of both," Dr. Ruth mused. Selene laughed.

"That's an accurate assessment for both sides," she admitted.

"How are you feeling?"

Dr. Ruth inquired gently.

"Truly."

"Scared," Selene confessed.

"Happy.

Both."

"Still both?"

"Always both," Selene confirmed. "I've stopped expecting it to become solely one or the other." Dr.

Ruth offered her a soft smile.

"That's growth."

"Expensive growth," Selene added wryly. "It took a year and a half, roughly." "The real kind often does," Dr.

Ruth replied.

"The cheap, quick-growth kind never takes."

The question that had been gnawing at her for weeks spilled out. "When Elena is born," Selene began, her voice quiet, "when she's here and tangible in a room with us. What do I do with the 'other' Elena?"

Dr.

Ruth paused, her gaze steady.

"You've been thinking about this?"

Selene confirmed. "Every day since it became real."

"Help me understand specifically what you're afraid of," Dr.

Ruth prompted, guiding her. "I’m afraid that when I look at her, I'll be overcome with grief. That the name will complicate things.

That she’ll somehow feel she’s carrying something that isn’t truly hers." "She is carrying something," Dr. Ruth stated firmly.

"A name given with purpose.

A name that honors the fact that someone before her existed and mattered deeply. That’s not a burden, Selene.

It’s a gift."

"What if she doesn’t see it as a gift?"

Selene asked.

"When she’s old enough to understand it fully, you’ll tell her the story, and she’ll decide for herself what it means to her. Children have a knack for that." Dr.

Ruth’s expression softened. "Your job isn’t to shield her from the name; it’s to provide her with enough love and security so that it feels like an inheritance, not a weight." Selene studied her cup of tea.

"You’re really good at this."

"I've had a fair amount of practice," Dr. Ruth replied with a gentle smile. "I've been having versions of this same conversation for thirty years. How do I embrace what's new without betraying what's lost.

That’s always the question."

"And the answer is," Selene murmured. "You don't betray it. You carry it forward.

That's what you're already doing."

She shared the conversation with Avalon that evening over dinner. "Dr. Ruth said the name is an inheritance, not a weight," she said.

"She's right," Avalon agreed.

"I know she's right," Selene replied. "I just needed to hear it from someone else." "You could have asked me," he suggested, his voice calm. "I needed someone outside of it," Selene explained.

"Someone who was there.

Someone who held her."

She looked at him, searching his eyes. "Some things have to come from a particular place."

He considered this for a moment. "Okay," he said finally.

"I understand."

"You're not offended?"

she ventured.

"Why would I be offended?"

"Maybe because I sought out someone else." "You went to the right person," he assured her.

She looked at him across the table, a small smile playing on her lips.

"Sequencing feelings," she said. "I'm not sequencing this one," he stated.

"I'm simply correct."

She jabbed at him with her fork. He smiled. Elena kicked inside her.

Selene placed a hand on her belly.

"She agrees with me," she said. "She has no idea what we're talking about," he countered. "She agrees with me anyway," Selene insisted. "She's a Castellano Pierce.

It's in the nature."

Continue to read this book for free

Scan code to download App

Previous Chapter Next 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 76: The Room Where It Happens
POV: Selene CastellanoThe board presentation was at ten but Selene had been awake since five.Not anxiously, just awake because her body apparently had decided that sleep was optional when something mattered enough.She lay in the dark and ran through the presentation in her head and Dr. Amara Ose
The Inheritance Clause CHAPTER 75: Tuesday Morning
POV: Avalon PierceHe was reading Nene’s board notes when Selene came home.Margaret had given them to Selene three months ago and Selene had given them to him last week without explanation, she just set them on the desk because she had decided the time was right.He’d been reading them for four da
The Inheritance Clause CHAPTER 74: Home
POV: Maya CastellanoThe last morning in Accra arrived too quickly.She’d packed the night before. Properly this time not three versions of herself in a suitcase. Just what she’d brought and what she was taking back which included the finished novel and something else she didn’t have a word for yet
The Inheritance Clause CHAPTER 73: Three Days Left
POV: Maya CastellanoTwo things happened on the fifth day.The first was that she finished the novel.She’d been reading in pieces since the first night. An hour before sleep and twenty minutes over breakfast while Kofi answered emails across the table with the comfortable silence of two people who

Share