Page 204 of Buried in Blood
There was one final ledger. A hidden safe I’d pretended not to know about for years.
Buried in the floor of the Orchard’s east wing. Behind a false slab.
Inside?
Everything.
Passwords. Buyer lists. Transfer logs.
Proof of what we did.
What I did.
I stared at it for hours. Long after the flames had turned the rest of the building into charcoal.
It was the last piece of him.
The last voice whispering in my ear.
You’re still one of us. Obedience is golden. Sin is cleansed.
A chill clouded the room around me. I set it on the ground and poured acid over it. Let the metal corrode. Let the paper rot.
It took hours.
And I watched every second of it.
Lucien offered to help.
Sodid Dante.
But this was mine.
My penance.
My purge.
They took care of the living—rescuing the girls, helping the survivors.
I buried the dead.
I erased the footprints.
I pulled up the roots and salted the soil.
Harmony doesn’t know about all of it.
Not yet.
Some truths deserve to die quietly.
But when she looks at me, I think she sees it—the weight gone from my shoulders. The violence drained from my hands. The guilt still there, but no longer bleeding.
She calls me “hers” now.
And I believe her.
Because for the first time in my life, I’m not waiting for orders.
