CHAPTER 39: The Betrayal

POV: Selene Castellano

Richard Castellanos looked exactly like Selene remembered.

Older, greyer, but the same sharp eyes, same crooked smile and the same presence that had once made her feel safe before he abandoned her.

“Dad?” The word came out broken.

“Hi, sweetheart. It’s been a while.”

It's been eighteen years, Dad. Eighteen years since he’d left her and Maya after their mother died, eighteen years of silence and now he stood in front of a warehouse holding Maya hostage.

“Where is she?” Avalon demanded. “Where’s Maya?”

“Safe. For now. Whether she stays that way depends on you.” Richard gestured to the warehouse. “Inside. Both of you.”

“We’re not going anywhere until we see Maya.”

Richard pulled out his phone and showed them a live video feed.

Maya was still tied to a chair but her eyes were open, aware and terrified.

“She’s inside,” Richard said. “Unharmed. As I said—she’s safe for now.”

Selene lunged forward but Avalon caught her before she made another move.

“Let me go—”

“No,” Avalon said quietly. “That’s what he wants but we are going to  stay calm and think.”

Richard laughed. “Smart man. I see why Nene chose you. Come on. Let’s talk inside like civilised people.”

He disappeared into the warehouse.

Selene looked at Avalon. “We can’t go in there.”

“We have to, Maya is inside and her safety is our main purpose right now.”

“It’s a trap.”

“I know but what other choice do we have?”

They walked into the warehouse.

Inside was mostly empty. Concrete floor, high ceiling and dimmed industrial lighting. And right in the centre was Maya. She was still tied to a chair, tape over her mouth and her eyes went wide when she saw them.

Selene ran to her sister.

“Maya, oh God, Maya—”

“Stop.” Richard’s voice was sharp. “Don’t touch her yet.”

Selene froze three feet from her sister.

“What do you want?” Avalon asked.

“What I’ve always wanted. What’s mine.” Richard pulled over two more chairs. “Sit. We have a lot to discuss.”

“We’re not discussing anything until you let Maya go.”

“I will, only after we've talked and you understand.” Richard sat casually. Like this was a normal family reunion. “You know, Selene, you look so much like your mother, the same eyes and stubborn chin.”

“Don’t you dare talk about her.”

“Why not? I loved her more than anything.”

“Yet you left us after she died. You disappeared.”

“I had no choice.”

“Everyone has a choice.”

“Not when you owe the wrong people money.” Richard’s expression darkened. “Your mother and I—we had debts. Gambling debts we thought we could handle. Then she got sick. The medical bills—God, the medical bills made us borrow from people we shouldn’t have borrowed from.”

Selene felt cold. “What people?”

“Dangerous people. People who don’t forgive debts. When your mother died, they came for me and said I owed them two million dollars. Two million I didn’t have.”

“So you ran.”

“So I survived. If I’d stayed, they would have killed me and probably you and Maya too. I left to protect you.”

“Bullshit,” Avalon said. “You left to save yourself.”

“Think what you want but I spent eighteen years building a new life, new name, new identity and new money all so I could eventually pay off that debt and come back.”

“And did you?” Selene asked. “Pay it off?”

“Almost. I needed one more big score. Then Marcus Pierce found me and told me about you,  your marriage, and your inheritance.” Richard smiled. “And I realised—my daughter married into one of the richest families in California. That’s my big score.”

Avalon’s jaw clenched. “So you teamed up with Marcus to steal our inheritance.”

“I teamed up with Marcus to get what I deserved. You think Nene Pierce cared about you, Selene? She didn’t even know you, she only forced Avalon to marry you to control him from the grave, you were just a pawn.”

“I was the woman he loved and still loves.”

“Were you? Or were you the convenient solution to a contract requirement?” Richard leaned forward."That's not even the best part, would you like to know what really happened?”

“Enlighten us,” Avalon said coldly.

“Marcus didn’t find me. I found him six months ago. I’d been watching Selene for years, watching her struggle with Maya’s medical bills and her surviving on nothing. My daughters were suffering, while I rebuilt my life. I felt guilty. So I decided to help.”

“By stealing from us?”

“By claiming what should have been yours anyway. I approached Marcus and told him I was Selene’s father. I told him I wanted to help challenge the will. He was sceptical until I showed him leverage.”

“What leverage?” Selene asked.

Richard pulled out a folder and slid it across the floor.

Avalon picked it up and opened it.

His face went white.

“What is it?” Selene asked.

“Birth certificate,” Avalon said quietly. “For Elena Castellanos. Born March 15, 2014, died March 15, 2014.”

Selene’s hands started shaking. “How do you have that?”

“ I was there,” Richard said. “At the hospital. I heard you’d checked in that you were in labour. I came, stayed in the waiting room and watched from a distance as they told you—” He stopped. “As they told you she didn’t make it.”

Tears streamed down Selene’s face. “You were there……You were there and you didn’t come to me, didn't say anything and didn’t help.”

“I couldn’t. The people I owed—they were still looking for me. If I’d revealed myself, it would have put you in danger. So I stayed away but I kept the birth certificate, though maybe someday it would matter.”

“And you gave it to Marcus,” Avalon said. “So he could use our dead daughter against us.”

“I gave him leverage to challenge a fraudulent will but Marcus got greedy and started working with Vincent Caruso, planning things I didn’t agree with.”

“Like murdering people?” Selene spat.

“I had nothing to do with those deaths. Marcus and Vincent—that was their game. I just wanted money.”

“So why are we here? Why kidnap Maya? Vincent’s arrested, Marcus is dead and your scheme failed.”

“Did it?” Richard smiled. “See, that’s where you’re wrong. My scheme is just beginning, Vincent and Marcus—they were tools. Useful idiots but I was the one really pulling strings.”

Avalon stood. “You’re lying, you don’t have that kind of reach.”

“Who do you think gave Vincent the surveillance footage? Who do you think told him about Marcus’s offshore accounts? Who do you think made sure the police found just enough evidence to arrest Vincent but not enough to connect any of it back to me?”

Selene felt sick. “You set Vincent up.”

“I set everyone up. Marcus thought he was using me, Vincent thought he was using Marcus but I was using both of them to create chaos. To make Pierce Holdings vulnerable, to make you, Avalon desperate.”

“For what?”

“For this. For the moment when you’d do anything to save the people you love.” Richard gestured to Maya. “Here’s the deal. You sign over the controlling interest in Pierce Holdings to me. Fifty-one per cent, I become the majority shareholder and Maya goes free.”

“You’re insane,” Avalon said.

“I’m practical. Anyways, you have three minutes to decide, sign over the shares or Maya dies.”

“The board will never approve that transfer.”

“They will if it saves Maya’s life. They will if you tell them it’s your choice. They will because Patricia Wong, Daniel Frost, and Thomas Reeves have already been paid to vote in my favour.” Richard pulled out his phone. “I’ve been planning this for months, buying board members and positioning pieces waiting for the perfect moment.”

“This is insane,” Selene said. “Even if we give you the shares, the police will investigate, they will find evidence and connect you to everything.”

“Will they? Because right now, Vincent Caruso is in jail for murder. Marcus Pierce is dead, well, Victoria and Jennifer are collateral damage from Vincent’s scheme. There’s no evidence linking me to any of it, trust me, I have been very careful.”

“We’ll tell them. We’ll testify.”

“You’ll be dead. Both of you. Tragic murder-suicide. Avalon, distraught over the stress of the investigation, kills his wife and himself. Very sad but these things happen.”

Avalon moved in front of Selene. “You’ll never get away with this.”

“I already have. The only question is whether Maya survives. So what’s it going to be? Sign over the shares and save your sister-in-law? Or refuse and watch her die?”

Selene looked at Maya, her sister who’d survived cancer, fought so hard to live, and had told Selene to fight back. Now she sat tied to a chair, terrified, because of their father’s greed.

“How do we know you’ll let her go?” Selene asked.

“You don’t. You just have  to trust me.”

“Trust you? You abandoned us, stole Elena’s birth certificate and orchestrated murders. Why the hell should we trust you?”

“Because I’m your father and despite everything, I don’t want you dead. I just want what I’m owed.”

“You’re owed nothing,” Avalon said flatly. “You’re a con man who abandoned his family and now wants to profit from their success. That’s not a father, that’s a parasite.”

Richard’s expression hardened. “Careful, Avalon. You’re not in a position to insult me.”

“Neither are you. Because here’s what you didn’t plan for—” Avalon pulled out his phone, pressed a button.

Diana’s voice came through. “I heard everything.”

Richard’s face went white.

“The wire you checked for when we came in?” Avalon said. “That was a decoy, the real ones are in my watch. Every word you said, every confession…. Diana has been recording from her van two blocks away.”

“You—”

“And the police backup I sent away? They didn’t leave, this building is surrounded right now, you’re done, Richard.”

“I’ll kill her.” Richard pulled a gun. Pointed it at Maya. “I’ll kill her right now and you won’t have time to stop me.”

Selene screamed.

Avalon held up his hands. “Don’t. Please. We’ll give you whatever you want just don’t hurt her.”

“Too late for that.” Richard’s hand shook. “You think you’re so smart both of you but you forgot one thing.”

“What?”

“I have nothing to lose. If I go to prison, I’m dead anyway. The people I owe—they have connections everywhere. So whether I shoot Maya or the police shoot me, I’m dead. I might as well take someone with me.”

He cocked the gun, aimed it at Maya’s head as the time slowed down.

Selene ran not toward Richard but Maya.

She threw herself in front of her sister.

“NO!” Avalon shouted.

The gunshot was deafening in the enclosed space.

Selene felt the impact, the heat then the Pain.

She looked down, blood was spreading across her shirt.

She’d been shot.

“SELENE!” Avalon’s voice sounded far away.

The warehouse doors burst open as police flooded in.

“Drop the weapon! Drop it now!”

Richard stood frozen, gun still pointed.

For one moment, Selene thought he might shoot again.

Then his hand dropped making the gun clatter to the floor.

The police swarmed him, shouting and putting him in handcuffs. The whole situation was chaotic.

Avalon caught Selene as she was collapsing, he was in fear as he was screaming…

“Stay with me. Selene, please stay with me.”

Maya was screaming through the tape. Someone eventually cut her loose.

“Lena! Lena no—”

Selene looked up at Avalon and tried to speak. He cuts her short—

“Don’t talk. The medics are on their way, you’re going to be fine.”

“Maya—is she—”

“She’s safe. You saved her.”

“Good.” Selene coughed, spluttering blood. “Avalon—”

“Shh. Save your strength.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too….I love you so much, please hold on.”

Her vision was getting dark around the edges.

She heard sirens, shouting, Maya crying and Avalon holding her, telling her to stay.

But she was so tired. So very tired her eyes began to close.

“SELENE!”. That was the last thing she heard before everything went black.