CHAPTER 54: Catherine

POV: Selene Castellano

Diana answered on the third ring.

“I know,” she said. Before Selene could speak. “Hale’s legal team served me this morning. They want my communications with him as part of their own defense strategy.”

“Explain that to me.”

“Hale’s lawyers are arguing that Diana was feeding information both ways — to Hale and to you.” Avalon’s voice came through the car speaker as he drove. “That Pierce Holdings was effectively participating in an intelligence operation that influenced federal markets.”

“That’s insane,” Selene said.

“It’s creative,” Diana said. “Which is worse than insane. Insane gets dismissed while creative gets a hearing.”

Selene pressed her fingers against her eyes.

They’d been so close.

Hale had been arrested, assets frozen and the company stabilizing only to find out that they have forty-eight hours from potentially watching all of it unravel through a legal motion filed by a man in federal custody who apparently had nothing to lose and excellent lawyers.

“What do we do?” she asked.

“You do nothing,” Diana said. “I will handle this. My communications with Hale are already documented and submitted to the FBI. My deal with the federal prosecutor covers this exact scenario. Hale’s team is fishing.” A pause. “Let me do the one useful thing I can still do.”

The line went quiet for a moment.

“Diana,” Selene said.

“Yes.”

“Please handle it.”

She hung up.

Catherine Pierce called at two in the afternoon.

Selene almost didn’t answer.

She’d been managing her energy carefully lately — deciding daily what she had capacity for and what would have to wait. Catherine occupied a complicated category, not quite an enemy anymore. 

She answered.

“I heard about the legal motion,” Catherine said.

“How?”

“I still have people who tell me things.” A pause. “Old habits.”

“Catherine—”

“I want to help.” She said it quickly. Like she’d been rehearsing getting the words out before Selene could redirect the conversation. “I know I’ve said that before and I know what it’s cost, what my help has meant historically but I have something that might actually matter this time.”

Selene waited.

“Edward Hale and I have met twice,” Catherine said. “Three years ago, before any of this started. He approached me about Pierce Holdings, asking if I’d be interested in supporting a restructuring of leadership.”

Selene sat up. “He approached you.”

“He knew about my relationship with Avalon. The distance between us and he thought I might be motivated to support a change in direction.” A pause. “I said no. But I have the emails outlining what he was planning, who he was approaching and what timeline he was working toward.”

“Catherine.” Selene kept her voice careful. “Why are you telling me this now?”

“Because Hale’s lawyers are trying to make Diana the problem. Diana herself may be a lot of things but she’s not the architect of what happened. Hale is, and I have three-year-old emails that prove he was building this before Marcus, before the will, before any of it.” Her voice was steady. “This is evidence of premeditation. The federal prosecutor will want it.”

The apartment was very quiet.

“You’ve had these emails for three years,” Selene said.

“Yes.”

“And you said nothing.”

“I said no to Hale and I moved on. I didn’t understand what he was building, at least not then.” A pause. “I understand it now.”

Selene stood. Moved to the window.

She thought about Catherine sitting somewhere in this city holding three-year-old emails that could significantly strengthen a federal prosecution against the man who’d orchestrated everything.

She thought about all the things Catherine had done and all the things she was doing now.

“Send them to Diana today,” Selene said. “Everything you have.”

“Already drafted the email, I just wanted to speak to you first.”

“Why?”

A long pause.

“Because they’re going to subpoena me,” Catherine said. “The federal prosecutor will want my testimony about the emails, my conversations with Hale, what I knew and when.” Her voice was careful now. “And testifying means everything becomes public. My history with Hale, my history with you, what I did ten years ago.” She paused. “I wanted you to know before it became news. Not you finding out through a headline.”

Selene stood at the window for a long moment.

This was the thing about Catherine that remained complicated — the genuine moments were real but they existed alongside everything else, and Selene had learned that both things could be true simultaneously and that didn’t make either of them smaller.

“Testify,” Selene said. “Tell them everything.”

“It will be uncomfortable. For you and Avalon both. Things will come out—”

“Things have been coming out for a year,” Selene said. “We’re still standing.” She paused. “Testify, Catherine. Do the right thing.”

Silence.

Then, quietly: “I’m sorry for all of it. I know I’ve said it before—”

“I know you are,” Selene said.

She hung up and called Avalon.

He answered immediately. “How bad?”

“Not bad.” She looked at the city. “Catherine has emails from Hales, three years old proof of premeditation.” She paused. “She’s going to testify.”

Silence on his end.

“Avalon.”

“I heard you.” His voice was careful. “She’s doing the right thing.”

“Yes.”

“It doesn’t fix everything.”

“No,” Selene said. “But it’s real, that is enough.”

She heard him exhale.

Outside the afternoon light shifted across the bay and somewhere in the city Catherine Pierce was pressing send on an email that would change the shape of a federal prosecution.

It wasn't an attempt to redemption but something smaller and more honest than that.

A woman choosing correctly.

Finally.

Her phone buzzed.

Maya.

A single line.

He brought me coffee to my door today. He didn’t stay, he just left it and went.

Then a second message three minutes later.

I think I’m in trouble, Lena.