Chapter 3 - I Watched My Own Funeral From a Hidden Room and Learned My Husband Had Already Replaced MeSeven days later, I watched my husband cry beside an empty coffin.
I was forty yards away.
Alive.
Hidden inside a private maintenance building across from the cemetery.
Dominic had stationed two guards outside.
My father sat in the front row.
Michael stood beside the coffin.
Ashley stood just behind him.
She wore black.
Of course she did.
She was grieving the woman whose husband she planned to inherit fifty million dollars from.
I watched through binoculars.
Every time Michael lowered his head, his face appeared broken.
Every time someone touched his shoulder, he looked devastated.
It was almost beautiful.
If you didn't know it was theater.
Dominic stood behind me.
“You want me to stop this?”
“No.”
“Emily.”
“I need to see.”
“You have nothing left to prove.”
“I know.”
I lowered the binoculars.
“But I need to know exactly who he is.”
The service continued.
My father's grief nearly destroyed me.
He had not known the truth.
Michael had told him I died instantly.
He had arranged everything.
Even the coffin.
My father believed his daughter was inside.
I watched him touch the wood.
I had to bite my hand to keep from screaming.
Dominic noticed.
“You don't have to watch.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Why?”
“Because someday my father will need the truth.”
Dominic was silent.
Then he said:
“He will.”
After the service, Michael approached my father.
I could read his lips.
“I am so sorry.”
My father looked at him.
“You loved her?”
Michael nodded.
“Yes.”
My father hugged him.
I nearly broke.
Dominic caught my wrist.
“Don't go out there.”
I whispered:
“He doesn't deserve that.”
“No.”
“He doesn't deserve my father's grief.”
“I know.”
Then Ashley approached Michael.
They waited until my father moved away.
Ashley whispered.
“It's done.”
Michael looked toward the coffin.
“No one knows.”
“Except the doctor.”
“He signed the certificate.”
“What about the mountain?”
“The storm destroyed everything.”
Ashley smiled.
“What about the baby?”
Michael's expression remained cold.
“She's gone.”
I stopped breathing.
Dominic's hand tightened around my wrist.
Ashley leaned closer.
“Then when do we get the money?”
Michael smiled.
“As soon as the insurance company confirms the death.”
“And Harper Holdings?”
“Emily's shares transfer at her death.”
Ashley smiled.
“Then we finally own everything.”
I turned toward Dominic.
His face was unreadable.
I whispered:
“Everything.”
He nodded.
“They just admitted motive.”
“Can we use it?”
“Not yet.”
“Why?”
“Because they haven't revealed the biggest secret.”
"What secret?"
He looked at Michael.
“Who else is involved.”
That night, Dominic showed me the evidence he had gathered.
Emails.
Bank transfers.
Phone records.
Michael had been paying someone.
Millions.
But the name was hidden through layers of shell companies.
I stared at the account details.
“Can you trace it?”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Two days.”
I nodded.
Then my phone buzzed.
It was my father.
I hadn't seen him in a week.
Dominic looked at me.
“You can't call him.”
“I know.”
I answered anyway.
I said nothing.
My father was crying.
“I buried my daughter today.”
I closed my eyes.
“I know.”
“Michael keeps telling me she's gone.”
He broke down.
I couldn't breathe.
Then he said something that changed everything.
“Emily left me a message.”
My eyes opened.
“What message?”
“She told me if anything happened to her, I should check the blue office.”
“What blue office?”
“My old office.”
“The one at Harper Holdings?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She told me there was something she wanted me to find if Michael ever betrayed her.”
My heart raced.
I hadn't told him that.
Someone else had.
Someone pretending to be me.
“Dad.”
“Yes?”
“Did someone send you that message?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“A woman.”
I swallowed.
“Did she identify herself?”
“No.”
Then I heard something in his voice.
Fear.
“Dad, lock the doors.”
“What?”
“Right now.”
“Emily, what are you—”
The call ended.
Dominic had already moved.
“Find your father.”
We rushed from the building.
But before we reached the estate, Dominic's phone rang.
He listened.
Then his face changed.
I knew immediately.
“My father.”
Dominic nodded.
“They got him.”
Everything inside me collapsed.
Michael had staged my funeral.
But while I was watching him mourn me, he had been moving against the one person left who could expose him.
My father.
May you like
And for the first time, I understood that staying dead was no longer enough.
I had to fight back.
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