Chapter 1 - The Satin Lining
The coffin stood directly in the center of my mother’s grand living room.
I had just returned from an grueling six-month civil engineering contract overseas. I was still holding a fresh bouquet of white lilies in my right hand and pulling my heavy travel suitcase with my left.
Then my eyes landed on the woman resting beneath the white satin lining.
My fingers went completely numb. The flowers slipped from my grip, scattering across the polished mahogany floorboards.
It was Claire.
My wife.
Eight months pregnant with our very first child.
She was wearing the elegant white maternity dress she had proudly shown me over our last video call just twenty-four hours ago.
My mother, Evelyn, stood beside the mahogany casket wearing a flawless black silk dress. Her makeup was immaculate, not a single smudge of mascara out of place. Her hands were folded neatly in front of her waist.
And strangely, there wasn't a single tear in her cold, dark eyes.
My younger brother, Nathan, stood near the wet bar in the corner, calmly swirling amber whiskey in a crystal glass.
Neither of them made a single move toward me.
"What... what happened to Claire?" I choked out, my voice breaking in the heavy air.
May you like
My mother answered in a quiet, practiced tone.
"There were severe sudden complications, Ethan. She died during childbirth early this morning."
