Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Weight of the Past

Leon's gaze lingered on Elena, the dim hallway casting shadows across his face. He had caught her. Again.

Elena clenched her fists. If she wanted answers, she had to stop fighting him at every turn. For now.

"Fine," she said, forcing her voice to stay steady. "Talk."

Leon studied her for a moment longer, then turned. "Come with me."

She hesitated but followed, her pulse racing. This was what she wanted—wasn't it?

He led her down the hall, through a heavy wooden door.

The room inside was nothing like the rest of the house.

No bookshelves, no fireplace. Just an old oak desk, a single chair, and…

A painting.

It stretched across the far wall, massive and haunting.

Elena stepped closer. The brushstrokes were eerily lifelike—a grand estate under a blood-red sky.

Her stomach twisted.

She recognized it.

The graveyard wasn't far from this place. She had seen ruins like these before—half-buried in the earth, hidden beneath time and shadows.

"This was your home," she whispered.

Leon didn't answer right away.

Then, quietly, he said, "Once."

Buried Secrets

Elena turned to him, searching his face.

He wasn't looking at the painting. He was looking past it.

Like he was remembering something distant, something lost.

"What happened to it?" she asked.

Leon exhaled slowly. "It was destroyed."

A shiver ran down her spine. "How?"

A pause. Then, finally—

"I did it."

Elena's breath caught.

She wasn't sure what answer she had been expecting, but not that.

She watched him carefully. "Why?"

Leon's expression didn't change, but something in his eyes darkened. "Because it needed to be erased."

Elena swallowed. He was still keeping something from her, something huge.

She turned back to the painting, studying the fine details. The estate looked old, ancient. But the landscape surrounding it…

It looked eerily like the town.

Had it always been here? Had it been buried beneath the town's history?

Elena's mind spun.

The past wasn't just a story to Leon.

It was a graveyard he had tried to forget.

And she had just started digging it up.