Tonight, was the final ceremony. We’d reached the end.
I had made it back just in time. I couldn’t believe it, but I’d managed to pull it off. I’d seen flashing police lights in my rearview mirror on my way out of the marina.
Once I had left the warehouse, I had no idea if the Feds allowed my father and his men to leave without issue. I hadn’t heard from him and had hoped there wasn’t any fallout afterwards. But none of that mattered anymore.
Now I was standing here with Grace. And it would soon be over.
“Can you hear my heart beating? I swear it’s so loud you can if you listen closely,” Grace said in a hushed voice. She’d astounded me when I’d returned earlier. She hadn’t been angry, especially after I explained everything. She was supportive, only asking questions about how it had gone and expressing concern about how I was doing.
It was funny. So many in my circle would take one look at her background and think she wasn’t good enough for me, but I’d begun to so clearly see it was the other way around. I would have to work my tail off to ever be good enough to deserve her.
“It’s going to be okay. Just try to stay calm,” I reassured.
“Is it? Is it possible to ever be okay again?”
I didn’t respond because I didn’t have an answer to that question.
“Montgomery?” she asked in a tiny voice. “If you could do this all over again, knowing what you know now, would you have chosen me?”
“No,” I answered automatically. “I would never put you through this, no matter what the payout is in the end.” I paused and then asked, “Knowing what you know now, if you got to go back in time, would you have agreed to being a belle?”
“Yes.” Her voice was soft at first but then she spoke with more conviction. “Otherwise, I would have never met you. I don’t think our worlds would have ever overlapped any other way.”
I huffed. “Yeah, welcome to my world. It’s a fucked up web of deceit, corruption, and a twisted view of reality. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone, and I can’t wait until you are safe from all this.”
“Even if that isn’t what I want?”
“I don’t think you truly understand my world,” I said sadly. “I don’t even think I understand it anymore.”
“But you aren’t like them.”
“How would you even know? You didn’t know the man I was before we entered the manor.”
I motioned to the room where we stood. “This is my lineage. I was bred for this. I crawled on these floors as a baby. I have the blue blood pumping so thick in my veins that I don’t know how to be anything else. And look at me.”
When she didn’t turn to look at my face, I raised my voice and demanded, “Look at me! I’m my father. He had to go through this Initiation just as his father did. Why would we do this? Why? I’ll tell you why. Because we are all sick bastards.”
“I don’t believe that,” she said calmly. “You aren’t your father.”
“I am. And just like my father, I will someday put my own son through this shit in order to run a business that should rightfully be his. History repeating itself. I’ll be one of these Elders someday. I’ll be casting judgment down on some poor soul and try to break him as they have tried to break me. I’ve tried so hard to resist. You’ve even helped me not lose every good that I held inside. But I’m tired. I’m fucking exhausted.”
As if the Elders could hear us speaking and wanted to arrive on cue, they entered the room in single file. There was a long table in the front of the room, and they each took a seat before us.
Even though their faces were shadowed by the silver hooded cloaks they wore, I was still able to make out the identity of each one. It was an odd relief to see my father’s face among them. He’d listened to me after all and made it out in time. The company was safe.
“Montgomery Kingston. Grace Morgan. You both have made it to the final ceremony. 109 days have come and passed, and you met each Trial of the Initiation successfully,” one of the Elders announced as he stood and struck his cane hard against the floor as a signal that the ceremony had begun.
The Elder sitting on the far right of the table asked, “Montgomery Kingston, please state to us what your desire is now that you have completed the Initiation.”
Finally. It was almost over.
“I choose to take over the family business as the CEO and major stockholder. I also desire to be a full member of The Order of the Silver Ghost. I also would ask the Order to grant Miss Morgan whatever her heart desires. She too has passed the Initiation.”