Chapter 2: Someone Was Waiting
Chloe grabbed Mason by the arm so fast he dropped his cookie.
"Stop saying things like that," she hissed.
"Aunt Madelyn is gone.
You're just tired."
"But Mom, she looked at me.
Her eye moved."
"Mason.
Enough."
She pulled him away from the coffin.
I heard her whisper something sharp and low, and the boy went quiet.
My heart was pounding so hard I was certain someone would hear it.
Then Christopher spoke again, his voice calm and businesslike.
"The funeral home is sending the car at two.
We need everyone out by one-thirty."
One-thirty.
I had maybe two hours before they put me in the ground.
I forced my fingers to move again.
Slowly.
One at a time.
The feeling was coming back, but not fast enough.
My legs were still completely numb.
Then I heard a sound I didn't expect.
A phone.
Christopher's phone.
He stepped away to answer it, and I caught only three words before his voice dropped to a murmur.
"She's already gone."
A pause.
"Don't worry.
The policy covers everything.
You'll get your half."
His half.
Her half.
There was someone else.
May you like
Someone who had been waiting just as long as Chloe.
Someone whose name I still didn't know.
