Chapter 2: Someone Decided That Was a Problem
Ethan stood up slowly.
He looked at Claire.
Then at the coffin.
Then back at Claire.
"Open it," he said.
The funeral attendant stepped forward.
"Sir, I can't authorize—"
"Open it."
Claire moved.
Not toward the coffin.
Away from it.
Ethan caught her arm.
"Let go of me." Her voice dropped to almost nothing.
"Ethan, please.
Not here.
Not in front of Noah."
"Then tell me whose body is in there."
She said nothing.
Noah was watching them both.
His hands had stopped shaking.
He looked older than eight standing there in the rain beside his mother's coffin.
"She knocked back," he said quietly.
"When I knocked, she knocked back."
Claire closed her eyes.
That was the moment Ethan knew.
Not suspected.
Knew.
He released her arm and pulled out his phone.
His hands were steady in a way that frightened him.
"I'm calling the police."
Claire's eyes opened.
"If you do that," she said, "you need to understand what comes out.
All of it.
Not just this."
"What does that mean?"
She looked at Noah.
Then at the coffin.
Then at Ethan.
"It means Lauren knew things.
Things she wasn't supposed to know.
And someone decided that was a problem."
The rain fell harder.
Ethan pressed call.
---
What Claire said next made Ethan's hand go still.
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The full truth — and what Lauren had discovered — is in the link below.
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