Page 74 of Sinful Embers

I open it and find six vials with a thick liquid in it.

The Vials are marked:

Gold P. Gold A. Platinum P. Platinum A. Silver P. Silver A.

I know exactly what they are.

And exactly what I need to do with them.

I shove the small lock box into my purse and everything else goes back where I found it.

I lock everything away, and ready myself for the next part of my journey before I leave even Miss M. behind for good.

Chapter 19

RADOMIR

I wake up to an empty bed.

The sheets are still warm beside me, her scent lingering—a mix of wild roses and something uniquely Leigh. My body feels heavy, sated from the night before, but something is off. The silence, the absence of her weight against me. I stretch my arm toward her side of the bed, only to feel the soft rustle of paper beneath my fingertips.

A note.

A cold wave crashes over me as I sit up, yanking the letter from the pillow. My heart slams against my ribs as my eyes scan the words, my fingers tightening around the paper with each line.

Dear Radomir,

This is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. I lost my heart, body, and soul to you the moment our eyes met that first night. While I was locked away in that dungeon, I realized howmuch I loved, missed, and yearned to be with you. Which makes this so much harder, as being without you for a week was torture—a lifetime will be hell.

But there is no future for us. Our worlds are not only different, but I know the code you live by, and by that code, you’d have to make a decision to end my life. I know there’s never an excuse for taking a life, even if it was to save my own and those of three people who meant the world to me.

My memories came back with force while I was locked away, and I now know who killed your father and your uncle—it was twelve-year-old me.

I’m the Greek Matriarch you’ve been searching for this past decade. Now that I remember who I am, I remember everything about my family, and if you come after me, my family won’t stop until every one of yours is gone. I can’t have more blood on my hands, so as of tomorrow at 4 p.m., I will be erased from your life and everyone else’s.

I wish there was another way.

You will always have my heart.

Leigh

My fingers tighten around the paper so hard it nearly rips in half.

A growl of fury rumbles in my chest as I swing my legs out of bed. The rage—hot and burning—threatens to consume me, but beneath it, something deeper, something raw and unnamable tears through me. She fucking left me.

She didn’t trust me. She ran instead of talking to me.

I slam my fist against the wall, the impact jarring my bones. How dare she make that decision for me? How fucking dare she?

A dozen emotions claw at me—anger, betrayal, disbelief—but the one that tightens like a vice around my throat is this ferocious, undeniable need to find her. Not just because she killed my father and uncle.

But because she’s mine.

And she fucking ran.

Within the hour, I gather the people I trust most. Sabrina, Oleksi, Dmitri, and Wanda are physically present. Gavriil, Galina, Nikolas, and Mark join via video. The only one missing is Carla—she has a doctor’s appointment for her broken ankle.

I don’t waste time with pleasantries. I slam Leigh’s letter onto the table and read the part where she confesses to being the one who shot my father and uncle.

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