Page 142 of His Wicked Revenge

Veronica tries to speak, but no words escape her as she staggers backward, forgetting how close she is to the edge. Her foot slips, and she instinctively reaches her hands out for me.

Don’t save her.

And I don’t.

I don’t reach my hands out to pull her back to safety. I don’t even flinch when her foot slips. I don’t rush towards her as she falls backwards and screams for my help. I stay rooted in my spot as I witness her realizing she is about to die.

The last thing I see is those beautiful brown eyes that I used to love so much.

Then, she is gone from my view.

Falling 300 feet on her way to meet the Devil for whom she works. I know I’ll see her again one day in Hell, but that will be a long time from now.

Inhaling a deep breath, I step towards the edge, not looking down at where she fell, and I throw the knife as far as I can, where it will sink to the bottom and be forgotten about.

I turn, beginning to pack up the blankets and food containers. Shoving them in the basket, I walk them to the car trunk and hop into the driver’s seat.

I sit for a moment longer before starting the ignition and turning the car around. As I drive down the dirt path that led us here, I glance in the rearview mirror. For some reason, I expected to see Veronica still standing there, but the space was empty.

Flicking my eyes back to the road before me, I can’t help but fight the smile as my body warms up with satisfaction.

I will be able to live my life the way I was supposed to.

Without Veronica in it.

Epilogue

LEO

Two years later

The spring air is warming up as we approach summer. It feels like this year is flying by, especially since April snuck up on us so quickly.

Honestly, the past two years have felt like someone pressed the remote's fast-forward button. But I guess that is what happens when you are truly living your life.

I stopped working for my dad last year. As much as I enjoyed working on cars and helping him out, I was able to start doing what I loved again.

The office I worked at before being employed at Black Lake was able to overlook my felony and allow me to come back.

Granted, the office is run by the same boss as it was back then. He knew that I was good at what I did; I mean, he was the one who referred me to the asylum in the first place because of my qualifications.

We ran into each other at the grocery store and got to talking. I told him I was working for my dad, but it wasn’t fulfilling enough. That is when he offered me my job back. He had said he wasn’t worried about what had happened in the past and knew that I needed to help people.

At first, I thought it was a joke, but when he told me to show up on Monday, I did, and he gave me a list of patients I would be seeing.

No one in the office or the clients cared about my actions. Honestly, it all blew over shortly after that night on the cliff.

Edith reached out to me. She has retired, and we meet for lunch once a week. She tells me stories about the asylum patients and how things have remained pretty much the same since I left five years ago.

Dr. Bennett is still running the place but has hired someone to take over his spot. Let’s hope that the new person is just as impressive as Henry. If not, those girls there will give the new person a run for their money if things don’t stay the same.

Edith told me they stopped searching for Veronica when all that gossip was out of the way. I acted shocked, of course, when she said that Veronica’s body was found. She didn’t go into much detail about her death, but she didn’t need to tell me.

I knew what had happened, but I did hear that the authorities were blaming Veronica for falling into the wrong crowd, which was perfect for me.

No one questioned me.

Not once.