CHAPTER 1: THE COFFIN THAT FELT LIKE A TOMB OF SECRETS
Rain clouds hung low over the cemetery as hundreds of mourners gathered to say goodbye to twenty-two-year-old Emily Carter.
Emily had been the kind of girl everyone admired. She volunteered at animal shelters, helped elderly neighbors, and dreamed of becoming a pediatric doctor.
Her death had shocked the entire town.
According to police reports, Emily had died in a car accident on a lonely highway just outside town.
The case was closed quickly.
Too quickly.
Many people had questions.
Why had there been no witnesses?
Why had her fiancé, Ryan Holloway, insisted on a private funeral?
Why had Emily's body been sealed in a closed casket immediately after the autopsy?
Nobody dared ask those questions out loud.
Until the coffin refused to move.
Eight strong pallbearers stepped forward.
"Ready?"
They nodded.
"One... two... three!"
The coffin barely shifted.
Confused, they tried again.
Nothing.
The men grunted and strained until their faces turned red.
Still nothing.
A murmur spread through the crowd.
One funeral worker leaned close to another.
"This isn't possible."
"What do you mean?"
"That coffin weighs at least three times what it should."
The crowd fell silent.
Then Emily's mother stepped forward.
Margaret Carter had not cried once during the ceremony.
She simply stared at the coffin with cold eyes.
As if she already knew something.
"Open it."
Gasps erupted around the grave.
Ryan immediately stepped forward.
"Margaret, this isn't the time."
She ignored him.
"Open. The. Coffin."
The workers hesitated.
Ryan's face suddenly turned pale.
"Don't do this," he snapped.
That was when everyone noticed something strange.
He wasn't grieving.
He looked terrified.
The workers slowly removed the screws.
The lid rose inch by inch.
Then one of the men screamed.
Inside the coffin...
there wasn't just Emily.
There was another body beneath her.
A man's body.
Wrapped in black plastic.
Hidden under the young woman's corpse.
And attached to his wrist was a luxury watch everyone immediately recognized.
It belonged to Ryan's missing business partner.
A man who had vanished three weeks earlier.
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Suddenly every eye turned toward Ryan.
And Ryan started running.
