And the people standing closest to the flames weren’t grieving.
They were waiting.
The crematorium smelled of incense, rainwater, and secrets.
My mother-in-law, Helena Vale, gently pressed a black lace handkerchief against perfectly dry eyes. Beside her, my brother-in-law Marcus kept checking his watch impatiently, as though my wife’s funeral was interrupting his evening plans. Near the chapel wall stood Dr. Crane, the family physician, looking pale beneath the dim lights.
“She’s gone, Daniel,” Helena said smoothly. “Please don’t make today harder than it already is.”
I stared at the coffin.
Inside lay my wife, Clara, dressed in the same white gown she had chosen for our baby shower. Seven months pregnant. According to them, she had died suddenly from heart failure before I even reached the private clinic. Before I could touch her hand. Before I could say goodbye.
Everything had happened too quickly.
No hospital transfer.
No police investigation.
No autopsy.
Only a signed death certificate, a sealed coffin, and relentless pressure from the Vale family to cremate her before sunset.
Marcus stepped close enough for me to smell expensive whiskey on his breath.
“You married into this family, Daniel,” he muttered. “You don’t control it.”
I was the son of a mechanic. The quiet husband they considered lucky to marry Clara. A nobody standing in borrowed black clothes.
At least, that’s what they believed.
I stepped toward the coffin.
Helena blocked me immediately.
“That’s enough.”
“I want to see her one last time.”
“No.”
