Chapter 3 - The Safe of Disturbing Truths
The gravediggers hesitated for a fraction of a second, looking back and forth between David and the frantic, mud-stained woman screaming behind him. But the sheer, terrifying authority in David’s eyes left no room for debate.
With a sharp heave, they released the straps.
The white mahogany coffin dropped a few inches into the wet earth with a dull, heavy thud that reverberated through everyone’s boots.
“No! Don’t do it!” Elena shrieked, lunging forward, but Marcus, David’s longtime head of security, stepped directly into her path, his broad frame blocking her completely.
“Stay back, Mrs. Vance,” Marcus said coldly, his hand resting firmly on her shoulder, pinning her in place.
David didn't look at her. His entire world narrowed down to the metal latches on the top of the white box. His hands were shaking violently as he dropped to his knees in the freezing mud. The rain continued to pour down, plastering his dark hair to his forehead, but he felt nothing. He only felt the frantic, unbearable hammering of his own pulse.
He flipped the right brass latch. Click.
He flipped the left brass latch. Click.
Taking a deep, shuddering breath, David placed his fingers beneath the heavy lid and pulled upward.
The lid broke the vacuum seal with a soft hiss.
David threw the lid back.
For one agonizing second, the interior of the casket was shadowed. Then, David’s breath caught in his throat, and a sound broke from his chest—half sob, half roar—that terrified everyone within fifty yards.
Inside the white satin-lined interior, Lily lay frozen. Her skin was deathly pale, her eyes wide open beneath unblinking eyelids, staring blankly up at the grey sky.
She wasn't breathing.
“Lily!” David sobbed, plunging his hands into the satin to pull her out into the rain.
“Wait, Mr. Vance! Don't move her too fast!” Leo shouted, rushing forward past the security guards and dropping to his knees beside David in the mud. “The metabolic suppressant! Her heart is barely beating! If you pump her chest wrong while the drug is still active, you’ll stop it completely! We need a reversal agent—atropine or high-dose stimulants! Now!”
David looked at the boy, shock warring with desperate hope. He pressed his ear against Lily’s small chest.
A faint, agonizingly slow thump... thump...
She was alive.
She was buried alive, trapped in her own body by a calculated, monstrous plot, while the woman who called herself her stepmother stood weeping fake tears five feet away.
David gently lifted Lily’s limp, ice-cold body into his arms, rising slowly to his feet. He turned around, his face drained of all human warmth, replaced by a mask of pure, unadulterated vengeance.
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Elena was still struggling against Marcus’s grip, her face twisted in terror as she saw Lily breathing in David’s arms.
“Call an ambulance,” David whispered, his voice so quiet it sounded like a death sentence. Then he looked at Elena, his eyes burning with a hatred that could melt steel. “And call the police. Because when my daughter wakes up in the hospital, we are going to have a very long conversation about what you put in her medicine cabinet.”
