CHAPTER 2 — THE LETTER NOBODY WAS SUPPOSED TO READ
The stranger was gone before Clara reached the cemetery gate.
She searched both directions.
Nothing.
Only rain washing over empty streets.
A cold chill crept down her spine.
"Miss Bennett?"
One of the police officers approached carefully.
"I'm Detective Ryan Cole."
Clara barely heard him.
Her eyes remained fixed on the place where the mysterious man had disappeared.
"Were you close to your brother-in-law?"
"Ethan?"
"Yes."
She hesitated.
"I thought I knew him."
Ryan glanced toward the tire tracks.
"He abandoned his wife while she was still alive."
He paused.
"People don't usually do that without a reason."
Clara looked down at the letter again.
No.
Something much bigger was happening.
St. Mary's Medical Center...
Doctors flooded Olivia into emergency surgery.
Hours passed.
No one was allowed inside.
Clara sat alone in the waiting room, still soaked from the rain.
She finally unfolded the letter.
The handwriting shook slightly, but every word belonged to Olivia.
Clara,
If you're reading this...
then I failed.
They convinced everyone I died.
Please don't let Ethan know you have this.
He isn't the man we believed.
Trust nobody connected to Blackridge Foundation.
Especially Dr. Mercer.
They only need one signature.
Mine...
or yours.
Burn everything in my apartment.
Before they get there.
I'm sorry I dragged you into this.
I love you.
Olivia.
Clara reread the letter three times.
Blackridge Foundation?
Dr. Mercer?
Signature?
None of it made sense.
Until one sentence caught her attention again.
Burn everything in my apartment.
Not hide it.
Not collect it.
Burn it.
Whatever Olivia had discovered...
She believed it was dangerous enough to destroy.
"Miss Bennett?"
A doctor stepped into the waiting room.
Clara stood immediately.
"How is she?"
The doctor's expression was complicated.
"She's alive."
Relief flooded Clara's body.
Then came the rest.
"But she's showing signs of prolonged oxygen deprivation."
"What does that mean?"
"We believe she was buried while heavily sedated."
Clara felt the room tilt.
"No..."
"She remembers fragments."
He lowered his voice.
"She kept repeating one sentence before surgery."
"What sentence?"
The doctor hesitated.
"'He smiled while they closed the lid.'"
Clara couldn't breathe.
"Who?"
"She never said."
Later that evening...
Detective Ryan entered Olivia's hospital room after surgery.
Machines beeped softly.
Olivia remained unconscious.
Ryan carefully examined her medical records.
Something immediately bothered him.
He checked again.
Then again.
"This can't be right."
He grabbed his phone.
"Run every record connected to Olivia Bennett's death certificate."
The dispatcher answered moments later.
"Already did."
"And?"
Silence.
Then—
"There isn't one."
Ryan frowned.
"What do you mean there isn't one?"
"No official death certificate was ever filed."
His stomach tightened.
"Then how was she buried?"
"We're trying to figure that out."
Ryan slowly looked toward unconscious Olivia.
Someone had organized an entire funeral.
Ordered a coffin.
Booked a cemetery.
Held a public burial.
Without legally declaring her dead.
That wasn't an accident.
That required planning.
And influence.
Across town...
Ethan entered an abandoned warehouse.
He locked the heavy metal door behind him.
The mysterious man from the cemetery was already waiting.
Still wearing gray gloves.
"You failed."
Ethan slammed both hands onto a rusted table.
"She wasn't supposed to open it!"
The older man remained calm.
"No."
His voice was almost gentle.
"She wasn't supposed to survive."
Ethan looked horrified.
"You said she'd stay asleep!"
"I said the dosage should have worked."
"What do we do now?"
The man smiled slightly.
"We move to Phase Two."
Ethan swallowed hard.
"...and Clara?"
The man's smile slowly disappeared.
"If she reads every page..."
He removed another identical envelope from inside his coat.
"...she'll discover what Olivia stole."
Ethan stared at the envelope.
"There are more?"
"Oh..."
May you like
The man chuckled quietly.
"There are six more."
