CHAPTER 201: The Sentence

POV: Avalon Pierce

He read the rest of it silently while Selene waited.

“Avalon,” she said again.

“He got fifteen years,” Avalon said. “No possibility of reduced time. Kim says the judge cited the deliberate, sustained nature of it. The blackmail, medical records and using a newborn as leverage.”

Selene was quiet for a moment.

“Fifteen years,” she said.

“Yes,” he said.

“That’s a long time,” she said.

She looked across the room, at the people who’d gathered, at the celebration continuing around them without knowing what had just landed in Avalon’s hand.

“Does it feel like anything,” she said. “Justice. Relief. Anything.”

He thought about it honestly.

“It feels like it's closed,” he said. “The same way the plea felt closed. Not resolved, just done.”

“Is that enough,” she said.

“It has to be,” he said.

She looked at Elena, still gripping his shirt with one fist, entirely unaware of federal sentences and half brothers and everything that had tried to unravel the life being built around her.

“He won’t be part of her life,” Selene said. “Not for fifteen years and maybe not ever.”

“No,” Avalon said.

“How do you feel about that?” she asked.

He was quiet for a moment.

“Relieved,” he said. “And something else I don’t have a clean word for. He’s still my brother. Even now. Even after everything.”

“You don’t have to feel one thing about it,” she said. “You’re allowed both.”

He put the phone away.

“Should we tell everyone,” Selene said.

“Not today,” he said. “Today is for this. For two years. We’ll deal with the rest tomorrow.”

She nodded, took his hand and they both walked back into the room together.

Maya caught Selene’s eye across the room a moment later and something in her expression made Selene cross over to her.

“You look different,” Maya said quietly.

“It’s nothing,” Selene said. “I’ll tell you tomorrow.”

Maya studied her for a second, then let it go.

“I have something to tell you instead then,” Maya said.

“What.”

Maya glanced at Kofi, who nodded slightly, some silent agreement already reached between them.

“We found out yesterday,” Maya said. “It’s a boy.”

Selene felt something warm move through her chest…..overwhelming joy.

“A boy,” she said.

“A boy,” Maya confirmed. “We’re naming him Robert.”

Selene went still.

“After Robert Laine,” Maya said. “The man who told Nene to wait. Who protected Avalon before any of us knew what protecting meant.” She looked at Elena, asleep now against Avalon’s shoulder. “It felt right. Continuing what you started with her name.”

Selene looked at her sister and Kofi’s hand resting protectively at the small curve of her stomach.

Elena stirred against Avalon’s shoulder, made a small sound, then settled again.

“She approves,” Avalon said.

“She always approves,” Maya said, “when it’s the right thing.”

Later that night, after everyone had gone and Elena was finally asleep, Selene sat on the kitchen floor with Avalon across from her, the way they always did when something needed the floor’s particular honesty.

“Fifteen years,” she said again, testing the words.

“Fifteen years,” he confirmed.

“And Robert,” she said. “Maya’s Robert.”

“Full circle,” he said.

“Not full circle,” she said. “Still circling. Still building.”

He looked at her.

“Nene’s question,” he said.

“Still being answered,” she said. “Every single day.”

He reached across the floor and took her hand.

“Fifteen years from now,” he said, “Elena will be sixteen. Robert will be fifteen. What do you think this will all look like by then.”

Selene considered it, looking around their kitchen, thinking of the foundation, the community, everything they’d built and were still building.

“Bigger,” she said. “Messier. Better.”

“Better,” he agreed.

They sat together in the quiet kitchen, the weight of the day settling into something manageable, something that could finally rest.