Chapter 130

He believed that if no one remained who could speak of it, if every witness disappeared, then the past itself would lose its power to hurt her. The logic was flawed, but the intention was absolute. No person walking on this land would ever know that Roshanay had ever been a prostitute. The knowledge would die with the men who had used her, and in its place, only silence would remain, a silence he was carving out with his own hands.

His wife wouldn’t have to worry about encountering someone who was related to her past life. The worry would be his to carry, and he would carry it to the grave. It was his vow to remove every existence even with the slight knowledge of who she was forced to become. He had made that promise to himself long ago, in the quiet hours when the weight of everything she had endured settled heaviest on his chest. No loose threads would be left behind, no whispers that could reach her ears or remind her of nights she wished she could forget. He would make su