Chapter 36 Funeral

Christian

Ten Years Ago

The day of my mother's funeral was a blur, a haze of grief and disbelief that settled over me like a suffocating fog. The sky was overcast. I stood by the gravesite, my eyes fixed on the polished mahogany casket that held my mother's lifeless body. The scent of freshly turned earth and the delicate aroma of the surrounding flower arrangements filled my nostrils, but I barely registered them.

Beside me, my father, Aaron, stood with his arm wrapped around the waist of his new wife, Elina. The sight of them together, so soon after my mother's passing, made my stomach churn with disgust. Elina, with her perfectly coiffed hair and designer black dress, looked more like she was attending a social event than a funeral.

I couldn't bring myself to look at them, to acknowledge their presence. The pain of my mother's death was still too raw, too fresh, and seeing my father move on so quickly with the woman he had been unfaithful with.

As the casket was lowered to the grou