The Funeral Without A Body
Chapter 14 - The Funeral Without A Body
The court authorized exhumation of the coffin buried under Thomas’s name.
Julian did not attend.
Grace did.
She stood beside Marcus and representatives searching for the identity of the unknown man. The remains belonged to Samuel Ortega, a machinist reported missing after an industrial fire fifteen years earlier. His sister Rosa had searched for him until her death.
Rosa’s daughter, Elena, received the call.
A billionaire family had buried her uncle beneath another man’s monument while her mother died without answers.
Grace met Elena privately.
No cameras.
No lawyers at the table.
No request for forgiveness.
Grace explained what investigators knew and offered to cover a burial chosen by the Ortega family. Elena accepted only after receiving control of every decision.
The original Whitmore-style monument was removed. Thomas’s name came off the grave. Samuel Ortega was buried near Rosa beneath a simple stone selected by relatives.
Thomas attended using a wheelchair.
He placed his compass ring beside the flowers for several minutes, then returned it to his hand.
“I’m sorry my life swallowed your name,” he told the grave.
Julian watched from a distance.
The family conspiracy had created victims beyond the Cross bloodline: Samuel, his relatives, clinic patients, workers whose pensions disappeared, communities that lost hospitals.
A story centered only on Thomas’s rescue would repeat the family’s oldest habit—treating everyone else as supporting characters.
Emma established a compensation fund overseen by independent representatives, including Elena. Thomas transferred personal assets into it without naming the project after himself.
At the end of the service, Elena approached Julian.
“My mother would have wanted to know why.”
“So do I.”
“She would also have wanted people to remember his real work.”
Samuel had designed safety valves used in factories across the region. Cross Global had once purchased his patents without giving public credit.
Julian ordered a historical review but caught himself.
He requested one.
The worker-led board approved it.
Samuel Ortega’s name appeared in company history at last.
May you like
Not as the body mistaken for a billionaire.
As the engineer he had always been.
