All Chapters of The Inheritance Clause: Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

POV: Selene CastellanoRecovery was harder than getting shot at least the bullet had been quick. One moment she was standing, next moment bleeding, then nothing.But recovery? Recovery was endlessly slow and frustrating.Two weeks of bed rest felt like two years.Selene sat propped against pillows in their bedroom, staring at her laptop, she was trying to work but failing to concentrate.Her abdomen ached. The pain medication made her foggy and every time she shifted position, she was reminded that someone had put a bullet in her and her father was that someone who had done. She still couldn’t process that. For eighteen years she was wondering where he was, hoping he was okay and busy making excuses for why he’d left.And the whole time, he’d been alive, planning, scheming and her.Maya appeared in the doorway with tea.“You’re supposed to be resting, not working.”“I am going insane doing nothing.”“You were shot three weeks ago doing nothing is your job.” Maya set down the tea as

POV: Selene CastellanoThe words hung in the air like a threat.She has the numbers to force you out completely.Selene watched Avalon’s jaw tighten saw him processing it the way he processed everything difficult — going very still, very quiet, while something worked behind his eyes.“What vote exactly?” he asked. His voice was too controlled.“A vote of no confidence in your leadership.” The distorted voice had no texture, no emotion you could read. Just mechanically flattened words coming through a phone speaker. “She’s been working the board all week. Calling members individually. Having private lunches. Very discreet.”“What is she telling them?”“That you’re unstable. The shooting affected your judgment and Selene’s trauma is bleeding into your decision-making.” A pause. “She’s also using your own interview against you, the one where you said you were questioning whether the company was worth the cost.”Selene closed her eyes briefly….of course she was.They’d planted that story

POV: Avalon PierceAvalon had been to Diana’s office more times than he could count.He knew Colton, the lobby security guard — thick-necked, eleven years on the desk, still asked after Nene like she might walk through the door one day. He knew which elevator ran slow, knew Diana kept good coffee in her bottom desk drawer because the office blend tasted like burnt ambition and she had standards about certain things even when, apparently, she had none about others.He thought he knew her.That was the thing sitting in his chest as the elevator climbed, not anger but the understanding that familiarity and knowing someone are not the same thing and never were.Beside him, Selene watched the floor numbers change.She hadn’t said much since the coffee shop, nor had he. Some things need the silence between words before they can become real enough to speak about.The doors opened.The receptionist looked up with a smile that flickered when she registered their faces. “Mr & Mrs Pierce………I don

POV: Selene CastellanoBefore she could process what had just happened, he did something that left her breathless.He stopped.Then positioned his shaft at the entrance of her core, looked into her eyes and said,“ I see you Selene and I love you so much”, and then penetrated in full as she screams out his name, clawing at his back while adjusting to his length, in less than 10minutes she came undone countless times.They continued their intimate relationship going on for hours, calling each others name, moaning and groaning until Avalon exploded out of pleasure and emptied himself into her.Afterward, the room was very quiet.She lay with her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat find its way back to normal. His hand moved through her hair. “Are you okay?” he asked.“Better than okay.”“Your side—”“Avalon.” She lifted her head. “If you ask about my side one more time tonight I’m sleeping in the guest room.”A pause.“Fair,” he said.She settled back against him.His heartbea

POV: Maya CastellanoNobody told you that surviving cancer was its own kind of grief.Everyone celebrated the remission and clear scans. The doctor’s face when he said the treatment worked like he was announcing something miraculous, which she supposed he was. Maya had cried in that office and laughed at the same time and called Selene from the parking lot and they’d both been incoherent for ten minutes.That was eight months ago.Now she sat in a coffee shop on Valencia Street on a Thursday morning with nowhere to be and thought about how strange it was to have a future again.Before the diagnosis, she’d had plans. Vague, someday plans — the kind you make when you’re twenty-six and time feels like something you’re drowning in rather than running out of. She’d wanted to go back to school, finish the graphic design degree she’d abandoned when the bills got bad, and travel somewhere that required a passport. She wants to fall in love properly, not the half-hearted situationships she’d b