Chapter 5 — The Funeral Without a Body
Chapter 5 — The Funeral Without a Body
The SUV sped through the city.
Grace sat pressed against the door, staring at Margaret.
Her mother looked older, thinner and exhausted, but the small crescent-shaped birthmark near her right eye was real.
Grace had kissed that mark as a child.
“You died,” Grace whispered.
Margaret’s eyes filled with tears.
“You attended a funeral. That is not the same thing.”
“There was a body.”
“There was a sealed coffin.”
Grace remembered.
The hospital had claimed the accident had left Margaret’s body too damaged for viewing.
Nicholas sat across from them with his wrists still tied.
He looked almost amused.
“Family reunions are touching.”
Margaret slapped him.
The sound stunned everyone.
“You destroyed my daughter.”
Nicholas slowly turned his face back toward her.
“You helped build the machine.”
Grace looked at Margaret.
“What does that mean?”
Margaret reached into her handbag and removed a flash drive.
“Your father founded a private research program called Mnemosyne. It began as a treatment for traumatic memory. Soldiers, abuse victims, disaster survivors.”
Nathan’s expression darkened.
“And then?”
“Then wealthy clients discovered memory could be used as a weapon.”
Margaret explained that Dr. Shaw had developed a chemical capable of weakening specific emotional associations. It could not erase a memory completely, but repeated exposure could blur faces, conversations and relationships.
Grace looked at the second envelope.
“Why me?”
Margaret’s voice broke.
“Because you saw something at the lake house thirteen years ago.”
The fire.
Grace’s fingers trembled as she opened the envelope.
Inside was a newspaper clipping.
LOCAL BUSINESSMAN KILLED IN LAKE HOUSE FIRE
The victim was listed as Alexander Cole.
Nathan and Nicholas’s father.
Beneath the clipping was a photograph of Grace, seventeen years old, standing outside the burning house.
A dark figure stood behind her.
Dr. Shaw.
On the back, Margaret had written:
Grace saw who locked Alexander inside.
Grace looked up.
“Who did I see?”
Margaret stared at Nicholas.
Nicholas smiled faintly.
“You saw Nathan.”
Nathan’s face went white.
“That’s a lie.”
“Is it?”
“I was eighteen.”
“You were angry with him.”
“I tried to save him.”
Nicholas leaned toward Grace.
“You want to know why your memories were altered before the wedding? Because you remembered your perfect husband killing our father.”
Grace looked at Nathan.
He shook his head.
“I didn’t do it.”
Margaret whispered, “The original security footage survived.”
“Where is it?”
“At the Cole family estate.”
Nicholas laughed.
“You’ll never get inside.”
Margaret met his eyes.
“That is why we kept you alive.”
The SUV suddenly swerved.
A vehicle slammed into them from the side.
Glass exploded across the cabin.
The SUV spun through an intersection and crashed into a concrete barrier.
Grace lifted her head.
Margaret was unconscious.
Nathan was bleeding.
May you like
The rear door had been torn open.
And Nicholas was gone.
