CHAPTER 1 – The Funeral Box Nobody Was Supposed to Open
The rain hadn't stopped since dawn.
As the last guests quietly left his grandmother Eleanor's funeral, 27-year-old Ethan Harper remained alone in the old family estate. The silence felt heavier than the coffin that had just been lowered into the ground.
An elderly family priest approached him with trembling hands.
"Your grandmother asked me to give you this... but only after everyone was gone."
He placed a small wooden box on the table before disappearing without another word.
Confused, Ethan slowly unlocked the box.
Inside were faded photographs, a silver pocket watch that had stopped ticking decades ago, and a sealed handwritten letter.
The envelope simply read:
"To my grandson... when you finally know the truth."
His hands shook as he unfolded the fragile paper.
"If you're reading this, it means I've left this world. But before you mourn me... you deserve to know who your family really is."
Ethan frowned.
His grandmother had raised him alone after his parents supposedly died in a tragic car accident when he was only six.
That was the story he'd believed his entire life.
But the next sentence made his blood run cold.
"Your parents did not die in an accident."
His breathing stopped.
The room suddenly felt too small.
Outside, thunder echoed across the empty estate.
The priest quietly returned to the doorway.
"I hoped she'd never make you read that."
Ethan looked up, pale.
"You knew?"
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The old man closed his eyes.
"I've been carrying this secret for twenty-one years."
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