Chapter 3

I was confined to the estate's interrogation room, facing the Elders' relentless questioning day after day.

The day of Noah's funeral was no exception.

My eyes were red and raw. I screamed until my voice gave out.

"I'll take the blame for everything. Just let me say goodbye to Noah one last time!"

Lilia stood beside Matteo, her face a picture of guilt and remorse, her voice choked with tears.

"Matteo, it's all my fault... it's all because I insisted on taking Noah out... please, let me... let me go in Sera's place to see Noah off. Think of it as my atonement..."

She grew more emotional as she spoke, until she buried her face in her hands and wept.

Matteo gazed at her tenderly and reached out to wipe her tears.

"This isn't your fault. But if that's what you want, then go in Sera's place."

He turned to me and ordered,

"You killed Noah. You don't deserve to attend his funeral. Stay here and continue the inquiry."

I lunged at Matteo, but the bodyguards pinned me down.

Matteo stepped back, disgust on his face. "Put her in shackles. Let her cool down."

The guards snapped cold steel shackles around my wrists and fastened me to the interrogation chair.

And Lilia, cradling Noah's urn in her arms, glanced at me with triumph before following Matteo out.

The heavy door swung shut.

After what felt like an eternity, the door burst open.

One of the men rushed in, his voice frantic.

"Something's happened! The hearse carrying Noah went off the road and flipped into the river! The Don wants Sera there now!"

My mind went blank.

When I arrived at the scene, I couldn't move.

The acrid stench of chemicals mixed with the reek of silt hit me like a wall.

This wasn't a river.

This was a reeking, black sewage canal.

A black stretch hearse lay on its side in the filthy canal.

On the bank, Lilia was soaked from head to toe, leaning weakly against Matteo.

"Matteo... I'm sorry... I couldn't protect Noah's ashes..."

"When the car flipped, the urn slipped out of my hands... it's all my fault..."

Matteo held her tight, gently patting her back.

"Where is Noah's urn?"

I shoved my way to the front, my voice a frightening rasp. "Where are my son's ashes?"

Lilia flinched and burrowed deeper into Matteo's arms.

Matteo snapped his head up, his eyes full of irritation and impatience. He snarled, "Sera, haven't you caused enough trouble? The driver fell asleep at the wheel. It wasn't Lilia's fault!"

"She came to say goodbye to Noah out of the goodness of her heart, and the guilt is already destroying her. Stop using a dead child to torture the living!"

Using the dead to torment the living.

Those words nearly tore me apart.

I looked at the trembling "living" person in his arms, then at the filthy canal that had swallowed my son.

The fury in my heart burned away every last trace of warmth, leaving only numbness.

I shoved aside the bodyguard who tried to hold me back and walked step by step into the revolting canal.

The thick, sludgy water swallowed my calves in an instant.

Under the horrified stares of everyone watching, I plunged my hands deep into the black mud.

My son was in here.

I was taking him home.

"She's lost her mind! Leave her!" Matteo stood on the bank, sneering. "Let's go!"

Everyone left. Only I remained, along with a few guards assigned to watch me.

I dug blindly through the muck with both hands, again and again.

Jagged glass and broken stone sliced my fingers to ribbons, but I felt no pain.

The freezing water numbed my entire body. All I knew was to keep digging.

The sky faded from light to dark, then light again. I had been digging for an entire day and night.

All ten fingers were torn raw, caked so thick with mud and blood I could no longer tell which was which.

Just when I thought I couldn't hold on, I felt it. The box.

Noah's urn.

I clutched that mud-caked box to my chest, as if I were holding the entire world.

Noah, Mommy's taking you home.