Chapter 14
Selene ultimately chose a plea rather than trial after forensic evidence tied her devices to the altered records and investigators secured testimony from the security contractor.
Her attorneys negotiated aggressively.
Lucius did not participate.
The family case proceeded separately.
Temporary custody became a longer-term order giving Lucius primary physical custody while Selene’s contact remained professionally supervised.
The judge did not terminate her parental rights.
That would have required far more.
Instead, the court left a difficult possibility alive.
Selene might someday have a relationship with Willa.
But she would have to build it through treatment, consistency, and the child’s safety.
Not through the fact that she was her mother.
Tristan received a prison sentence for the offenses to which he pleaded guilty.
Before sentencing, he requested permission to apologize to Lucius.
Lucius declined.
Then Tristan asked to write a letter to Willa.
Lucius did not decide himself.
He gave the question to Willa’s therapist.
The answer was no.
Not yet.
Tristan accepted it.
That was the first decision Lucius had seen him accept without trying to negotiate.
The family crest pin was returned to Lucius as property during the investigation.
He kept it inside a desk drawer for several weeks.
Then one morning Willa wandered into his office and found it.
“Daddy badge?”
Lucius looked at the black crest.
For most of his life, it had represented authority.
Tristan had worn it for six days and believed authority meant people had to obey him.
Selene had used it to make him visible while she remained behind the decisions.
Lucius took it from Willa’s small hand.
“Something like that.”
“You wear?”
He looked at it.
“No.”
He placed it inside a locked box.
Not because the Barrone name was disappearing.
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Because Willa needed to learn that family was something people did.
Not something they pinned to a jacket.
