Chapter 303
[ 506 words ]
Chapter 303:
Brenna sat on the edge of the narrow cot. The mattress dipped under her weight. Her hands trembled violently as she offered the paper plate to Caroline.
She begged Caroline to eat. Her voice was a fragile, broken whisper. She stated she simply couldn’t bear to lose her best friend too.
Caroline looked at the dry toast. Her stomach churned violently at the mere thought of swallowing food. Her throat felt tight and completely closed off.
She looked up at her friend’s broken, devastated face. She realized with a cold clarity that she was now the only anchor she had left. She had to be the strong one.
Caroline swallowed her nausea. She reached out with shaking fingers and took the toast. She forced a small bite into her mouth.
It tasted like dry ash. She chewed mechanically, forcing her jaw up and down. She swallowed hard, forcing the food down her dry throat out of sheer, grim duty.
Brenna let out a long, shaky breath of relief. She leaned her head heavily against Caroline’s shoulder, weeping softly into the fabric of her scrub top.
Caroline didn’t cry. She stared blankly at the wall over her friend’s head. She felt her heart hardening into a cold, impenetrable stone inside her chest.
𝘕𝖾𝘄 𝘤h𝖺𝗽𝘁𝘦𝗿ѕ 𝗲𝘃er𝘆 𝘸𝘦e𝗸 оո g𝗮𝘭ո𝘰𝘃е𝗹s.𝘤𝗈𝗆
She realized she could not afford to fall apart. She had to bury her mother. And then she had to find Jarrod.
Julian drove Caroline and Brenna back to Caroline’s Alexandria home in the late morning. The sky was overcast, casting a dull gray light over the quiet suburban street.
The house felt terrifyingly empty when they walked through the front door. The silence was heavy, thick with the absence of the woman who used to fill it.
Caroline didn’t pause in the hallway. She walked immediately to the kitchen table and opened her laptop.
She pulled up the directory for local funeral homes. Her face was an unreadable mask of pure, cold efficiency. Her fingers flew across the keyboard.
Julian stood awkwardly in the living room archway. He watched her rapid movements. He offered to handle the logistics, make the calls, or pay for the immediate expenses.
Caroline didn’t look up from the bright screen. She flatly rejected his offer. She stated in a clipped tone that this was family business and she would handle it.
She picked up her cell phone and dialed the director of Oakwood Cemetery. She spoke in a crisp, emotionless tone, sounding more like a corporate event planner than a grieving daughter.
She negotiated the price of a burial plot. She selected a solid mahogany casket. She confirmed the delivery times without shedding a single tear or letting her voice waver.
Julian watched her from the doorway. He was deeply unsettled by how quickly she had weaponized her grief into cold productivity.
He realized she was building an impenetrable wall around herself. She was pushing the entire world away, hiding behind a shield of logistics and tasks.
Meanwhile, back at the Romero estate, Cornelia locked the door to her study. She logged into a highly encrypted offshore banking portal on her laptop.
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