PART 1: The Axe in the Funeral Home

The room fell into a stunned silence.

The axe blade was lodged deep in the coffin lid.

Claire braced one foot against the floor and pulled with both hands. The blade came free with a harsh wooden crack. Broken white fragments fell onto the polished floor near her shoes.

Margaret backed away, her veil trembling with every uneven breath.

“You don’t know what you’re doing,” she said.

Claire looked at her.

“No,” Claire replied. “I know exactly why you wanted this coffin closed.”

The male mourner stepped forward, palms raised.

“Put the axe down,” he said carefully. “Whatever this is, we can talk.”

Claire shook her head.

“I tried talking,” she said. “For three days, everyone told me to be quiet.”

Her voice cracked, but she did not lose control.

“I told them the timeline was wrong. I told them the papers were signed too fast. I told them no one would let me see anything. And every time I asked one question, she told me grief had made me unstable.”

Every eye in the room shifted toward Margaret.

The widow’s face hardened beneath the black veil, but fear was breaking through.

“That woman is a liar,” Margaret said. “She worked in the service wing. She has no right to be here.”

Claire’s grip tightened around the axe.

“I worked in his house for six years,” she said. “I knew when he was sick. I knew when he was scared. And I knew when he was planning to leave.”

A murmur moved through the mourners.

Margaret’s lips parted.

The male mourner looked at the widow, suddenly unsure of whom to believe.

Claire dropped to her knees beside the coffin.

She set the axe down far from the mourners and pressed both trembling hands against the cracked lid. Her fingers found the split in the white surface. She pulled.

The lid did not open fully.

It shifted only slightly.

A narrow, dark gap appeared.

Just enough to look through.

The white flower arrangement slid across the lid and nearly fell. Guests stepped farther back, afraid of what the broken coffin might reveal.

Margaret’s panic became visible now.

“Don’t look inside!” she shouted.

Claire froze for half a second.

Then she turned her face toward the widow.

“That’s exactly why I have to.”

She leaned close to the dark crack.

The room stopped breathing with her.