All Chapters of Vows of Ashes: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

KAII told him everything I knew while we stood in the ruined study, both of us bleeding in different ways. None of it mattered anymore. We needed answers.“Everything,” I said again when Elias didn’t respond.He was still staring at me like he was waiting for the word to somehow change what he’d just heard.“Start with the letter.”His hand went to his jacket pocket. He left it there for a second before pulling out the folded paper.“She’s alive,” he said. “My mother. Or she was. Ashford Hollow. Two hours north. My father knew the whole time and never went after her.”“Why would he keep that from you for nineteen years?”“Because he was afraid he’d lead someone straight to her.” Elias swallowed. “Teo thinks he wasn’t the only one who knew the name might still matter.”Behind me, Renata had gone quiet.“If Marco let her leave alive nineteen years ago,” she said, “it wasn’t mercy. He doesn’t do mercy. He does insurance.”“Insurance against what?”I already knew I wasn’t going to like t

KAIThe car had barely stopped before I shoved the door open.My shoulder began to hurt me but I ignored it.Elias was out right behind me, leaving his father slumped against Teo in the back seat.“Stay down,” I ordered them.I knew neither of them would listen.Larch Street was too quiet.There were no barking dogs. No lights coming on behind curtains. No people standing at windows pretending not to watch. Just rain tapping against the parked cars and a dark sedan sitting three houses down with its headlights off.“That’s him,” Elias whispered.“Stay behind me.”“Kai—”“Behind me.”I kept my voice low, but there was enough warning in it that he finally stopped arguing.We moved along the fence, keeping our heads down. At the end of the street stood a small yellow house. One light was on upstairs.Then the sedan’s engine went silent.A door opened.Marco Reyes stepped out.He didn’t hurry. He simply closed the door, straightened his jacket, and looked toward the house as though he had

DAHLIAFor nineteen years, I’d kept my past buried. I changed my name, left everything behind, and settled in Ashford Hollow, hoping I could raise my son without the past catching up with us.I’d been wrong.Now I stood on my porch, watching Elias with blood on his knuckles while Marco Reyes leaned against a car, blood running from his face. Even after everything that had happened, he still had that damn smile on his lips.I was tired of being afraid of him.“Stop!”My voice cut through the rain.“Marco, please. Don’t.”Everyone turned toward me.“Dahlia.” He said my name like we were old friends meeting after a long time apart. “Look at you. Nineteen years, and you still look good. Ashford Hollow must agree with you.”“Shut up.” I stepped off the porch. “Whatever you came here to do, leave my family out of it. I’ve kept quiet all these years. I’m asking you to let this go.”His smile faded.“You don’t get to ask me for anything.” He wiped his mouth with his thumb. “You owe me, Dahlia

RENATAI ended the call and stood on the porch, soaked from the rain. My hands were still shaking.After nineteen years, I had finally told someone the truth. I thought I would feel relieved, but I was only tired.Inside, Dahlia was making tea.Blood stained the porch. Marco was being taken away, and everything she had spent nineteen years hiding was finally coming to light. Yet she stood in the kitchen, preparing tea as if nothing had happened.Salvatore sat at the table with a towel around his shoulders. He was still shivering, his eyes following Dahlia as she moved around the kitchen. I wondered what it felt like to discover that the woman you loved had kept an entire part of her life from you.Elias stood by the window, watching Kai outside.“Your brother’s fine,” I told him. “They’re putting Marco in my car. He isn’t giving them any trouble.”Elias turned briefly.“That’s not what I’m worried about.”I pulled out a chair beside Salvatore. “Then what is?”He rubbed his face.“I th

ELIASThree months had passed, but nineteen years of pain didn’t disappear just because the truth was finally out.Some mornings, I’d wake up in my father’s house and find myself staring at the ceiling, waiting for the familiar ache to settle in. Then I’d remember the study had been repaired, the boards were gone from the windows, and my father was still here.He was getting better, though not as quickly as he’d hoped. Some days, he’d sit on the porch for hours, barely saying a word. He wasn’t shutting people out like before. He was just tired. After spending so many years living with what happened, I suppose he didn’t know what to do now that he could finally breathe.My mother visited twice a month. She always blamed the drive, but I knew there was more to it. Neither of them knew how to spend a whole day together without the past creeping into the conversation.Still, they were trying, and that was enough for now.Teo had started keeping the bar open later. He joked that business w