The Scent of Roses || Coriolanus Snow

Chapter XXXVIII: Finale

Coriolanus Snow — 3 Months Later

The mansion had grown tirelessly empty. It had only been a few days since Grandma'am had passed away, and I hadn't been able to shake the last words that fell upon her lips.

"Carry on the Snow legacy, Coriolanus. Do not fail us."

But I already had. I held her gently in my arms as she slipped away into nothingness. The woman to carry on the Snow legacy, my rose, was gone, and I doubted I would ever be able to live with that.

She had been the perfect candidate from the second I saw her. She hadn't known I was there, but I had perfected it that way. It would be more telling of her personality if I watched patiently in the shadows, even if it killed me. Watching her sorry excuse for a man walk all over her like she was a doormat had been degrading. She didn't once try and stand up for herself. All she added for effect were a few, tiny giggles, when I knew deep down she had felt like crying.

I watched her for many months after that, studying her every movement, like she was a wild animal needing observation. She didn't care that Cedar treated her like she didn't matter. I would've even argued that she liked it. It was painful to listen to her screaming moans inside her apartment building when he was the one making her do that. But I had a suspicion it was all for show. After taking her myself, I knew I had been right.

She liked the danger in a man who kept her on her toes. That was her biggest weakness. Even when she knew someone wasn't good for her, she couldn't help but stay. It was pathetic, but that was what I needed. I knew no ordinary girl would be able to handle the pressure of my past and not only learn to accept my flaws, but love them. I thought I had found that in her, but just like before, Sejanus Plinth had been the cause of my downfall. Even in death, he was an incredible pain in my ass.

Tigress had refused to visit me in the weeks after she died. My poor, sweet rose. I knew my cousin had suspicions of her death, and undoubtedly blamed me for it. It wasn't an easy task to convince the public I hadn't been involved. But, it helped that I had kept our relations away from the crowds. I didn't need public outrage over such nonsense.

After she had stormed away from the crowd at the celebration, and many had overheard her heated conversation with the boy from District 2, I knew that suicide would be an easy card to pass off.

Doctor Gaul attested that her behavior had been strange and that the vial had been unaccounted for only after she had left her office. I knew that wasn't enough to prove she had done it herself, but the single set of prints on the vial belonging to her did.

The note I had forged was not my finest work, but it was easy to blame her sudden loss of hope on the altercation with her tribute. I heard that only two weeks after her death had been made public, the boy had hung himself in his home. Whether it was due to her death, or the emanating threat of mentoring future tributes, I hardly knew. Regardless, I found myself jealous that they would live out their days in the afterlife together. I knew it didn't have to end that way.

Part of me wished desperately to reason with her, as I had since the beginning. I knew my faults with Lucy Gray had come from my lies and betrayal. I tried to be honest with her, my rose, but there was only so much a person could be trusted with. I hadn't known if she would turn on her heels and run to the nearest courthouse, begging for my arrest, and that wasn't something I could afford.

When she asked, I was open and honest. Or, as much as I could be. In some situations, it was better I kept my mouth shut, but she didn't appreciate that.