CHAPTER 192: What Catherine Said

POV: Selene Castellano

Catherine had been crying.

Selene could see it the moment they walked in. She carried the look of someone who had been doing something privately and had composed herself before the door opened but hadn’t quite finished the composing.

She sat across from them at her kitchen table with her hands folded and her back straight with dignity.

“Tell us,” Avalon said.

“I sent the money,” Catherine said. “To your father’s lawyer. It was eighty thousand dollars from the dormant account.” She looked at Selene. “I knew about the account from the estate audit. I knew it had been overlooked.”

“Why?” Selene asked.

“Because someone asked me to,” Catherine said.

“Who?” Avalon asked.

Catherine looked at the table.

“Daniel Reyes came to me six weeks ago,” she said. “Before the board removal or any of this was public. He told me he had information about Selene, about her history and her father.” She paused. “He said if I helped him he’d make sure certain things about my own past stayed private.”

“He blackmailed you,” Selene said.

“Yes,” Catherine said quietly.

“With what?” Avalon asked.

“Things from before,” Catherine said. “From the years when I made decisions I’m not proud of. Things connected to Marcus. Things I thought were buried.” She looked at Avalon. “I should have come to you immediately. I know that.”

“Yes,” Avalon said. “You should have.”

“I was afraid,” she said.

“I know,” he said. “You’re always afraid and you keep making the wrong decision because of it and then you try to fix it and it’s always almost too late.”

The words landed hard.

Catherine absorbed them without flinching.

“Yes,” she said. “That’s accurate.”

Selene looked at her.

At this woman who had done terrible things and had been trying to do better and had failed again in a specific and consequential way.

“The money went to my father’s lawyer,” Selene said. “To fund a fraudulent civil claim against me.”

“I didn’t know what it was for specifically,” Catherine said. “Daniel said it was a legal matter. That the money would help resolve something quietly. I didn’t ask enough questions because I didn’t want to know the answers.”

“That’s not an excuse,” Selene said.

“I know,” Catherine said. “I’m not offering it as one.”

The kitchen was very quiet.

“Catherine,” Avalon said. “I need to ask you something and I need the complete truth.”

“Yes,” she said.

“Is there anything else,” he said. “Anything else Daniel asked you to do and you agreed to. Anything you know that we don’t.”

Catherine was quiet for a long moment.

“He asked me to provide information about the foundation’s early governance decisions,” she said. “Things I knew from conversations with you and Selene. I wrote a memo. I didn’t send it.” She reached into the folder on the table and pushed it across. “This is everything. Every communication with Daniel. Every request. Every response.” She looked at them. “I kept copies because I knew eventually this moment would come and I wanted to have something to give you when it did.”

Avalon took the folder.

Selene looked at Catherine.

“You kept evidence,” she said.

“Against myself,” Catherine said. “Yes.”

“Why?” Selene asked.

“Because I’m tired of doing things that require hiding,” Catherine said. “I’m ageing and very tired.”

They left an hour later.

In the car Avalon drove and Selene held the folder on her lap and neither of them spoke for two blocks.

“She kept evidence against herself,” Selene said finally.

“Yes,” Avalon said.

“That’s either genuine or it’s the most sophisticated version of self-protection I’ve ever seen,” she said.

“Which do you think,” he said.

She looked at the folder.

“Genuine,” she said. “I think she’s genuinely tired of hiding things.”

“So do I,” he said.

“That doesn’t fix what she did,” she said.

“No,” he said. “It doesn’t.”

“My father got eighty thousand dollars because she was afraid and didn’t ask questions,” she said.

“Yes,” he said.

“And Daniel Reyes knew exactly who to approach,” she said. “He knew Catherine was the weak point.”

“He’s been studying us for months,” Avalon said. “ He knows every vulnerability.”

“Then we need to know everything he knows,” she said. “Before he uses any more of it.”

“Kim’s office,” he said.

“Everything in that folder goes to Kim today,” she said.

“And Catherine,” he said.

She looked at the window.

“Catherine should go to Kim voluntarily,” she said. “She should give a full statement. She should offer it before she’s asked.”

“You’re giving her a way to do the right thing,” he said.

“I’m giving her one more chance to choose correctly,” she said. “What she does with it is hers.”

He glanced at her.

“You’re more generous than I am,” he said.

“I’m practical,” she said. “Her voluntary statement is more useful to Kim than a compelled one and she's more useful to us cooperating than defending herself.”

Kim received the folder at three PM.

He read through it efficiently like someone who had been building a case and had just received the piece that completed it.

“This is enough,” Kim said. “For Daniel Reyes specifically. The coordination between him, Sandra Cole, and the fraudulent civil claim. The blackmail of Catherine Pierce.” He looked up. “We can move on him today.”

“Today,” Avalon said.

“Today,” Kim confirmed. “If you want.”

Avalon looked at Selene.

“Do it,” she said.

They were in the car when Margaret called.

“It’s done,” Margaret said. “Daniel Reyes was taken into federal custody twenty minutes ago.” A pause. “There’s something else. His phone was seized as part of the arrest. Kim’s team did a preliminary review.” Another pause. “Selene, there are messages on that phone that suggest Daniel had a contact inside the foundation. Someone who had been feeding him information for months.”

Selene felt the car slow slightly as Avalon processed it.

“Who,” she said.

“They don’t know yet,” Margaret said. “The messages used encrypted aliases. But Kim says they can trace it.” A pause. “He says within forty eight hours he’ll have a name.”

Selene looked at Avalon.

Someone inside the foundation.

Someone who had been in every meeting, every conversation and every decision.

Someone they trusted.

Again.