They were about to cre:mate my pregnant wife when I pleaded, “Open the coffin… just once.” They all laughed, until her belly moved. My mother-in-law turned pale. My brother-in-law hissed, “Close it now.” But I’d seen enough.

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.continue reading …