Burn Me Once, Burn With Me novel Chapter 378

The warden’s head throbbed with anxiety.

Cassian wasn’t the kind of man to swagger into a place just to throw his weight around. That meant this year’s surveillance footage had to be of grave importance to him.

Still…

His fingers curled tightly.

When Bennett had come to request the security recordings, he’d specifically mentioned the area where Ruby was held. The implications were impossible to ignore, and the warden’s nerves were stretched to the breaking point.

“You—go to my safe.”

He clenched his fists, but could only stand ramrod straight, hands pressed obediently to his trouser seams.

After all, in Quinborough, you might risk provoking a high official or a powerful family, but you never, ever picked a fight with Cassian Veyne.

Moments later, a black case with silver trim was brought in.

The lock clicked open, revealing a single USB drive inside.

Cassian couldn’t quite name the feeling that crawled through him.

He plugged the drive into the nearest computer, and, sure enough, the screen flickered to life with footage from the previous year—the very tapes someone had tried to hide.

Unlike the roughhousing and petty squabbles on the tapes Cassian already had, this recording was far more harrowing.

He scrubbed forward. Ruby’s face appeared, ghostly pale.

She was… in labor?

Cassian’s heart slammed against his ribs.

The footage played on. Blood pooled beneath Ruby as she curled up in a filthy corner.

She beat desperately at the wall, clearly trying to attract a guard’s attention, but whenever someone passed by, they barely glanced inside before moving on, ignoring the spreading stain on the floor.

Cassian felt his heart split wide open.

The scene only grew more horrific. Ruby’s wide eyes stared blankly at the ceiling—despairing, lifeless—as blood kept seeping from her body.

He knew, just from that look, that Ruby must have believed she wouldn’t make it out alive.

At last, after she’d lost consciousness, someone finally stormed in, cursing, and dragged her away.

When Ruby returned to the cellblock, a tiny pink newborn was in her arms.

Cassian remembered Ruby before all this—her eyes had always been clear, even after enduring humiliation. But this time, she’d come back with a cold, death-defying edge, like a revenant clawing her way out of hell.

Now, anyone who tried to approach her and little Mira was driven back by the icy venom in her gaze.

The screams at the start of the footage and the grim silence that followed left a pall of death hanging over the entire prison.

Cassian slammed the laptop shut, unable to look any longer.

“Why?”

His voice was ice as he stared down the assembled staff.

The warden froze, his already numb body growing even more rigid.

“What… I—ah!”

Cassian’s fingers dug in deeper as he watched the warden gasp for air, but the anguish in his chest didn’t subside in the slightest.

Suddenly, a desperate glimmer lit the warden’s eyes.

“Please, sir, I—I swear I didn’t know what happened to your wife! If I’d known—I would’ve punished them myself!”

He scrabbled at Cassian’s arm, pleading for his life.

Cassian only laughed—a cold, joyless sound.

“Kendal, do you take me for a fool? You expect me to believe you didn’t know? What did they pay you? You really dared to target my wife?”

Without Kendal’s say-so, who would’ve dared lay a finger on Ruby? This wasn’t petty jealousy between inmates. This was premeditated.

Someone had made sure Ruby would never have it easy in prison. Kendal might not have acted directly, but he was definitely getting his cut.

“Kendal, you’re digging your own grave.”

The words curled in Kendal’s ear like a demon’s whisper.

Suddenly, the grip on his neck let go.

He stumbled, legs giving out, collapsing to the floor.

Survival instinct took over, and he threw himself down, banging his forehead on the floor again and again in front of Cassian.

“Mr. Veyne, Mr. Veyne! I know I was wrong! I—I was out of my mind!”

His face pressed against the grimy floor, as some unidentifiable liquid seeped beneath him.