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All Chapters of EMPTY GRAVE.. the brother we buried : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

22 Chapters

You Buried An Empty Box

"Get the fuck out of my wedding, Rainer."The words ripped out of Jose before the priest finished. Guests froze. Phones rose like vultures. Camille's hand went rigid in his, nails biting into his palm.Rainer stood at the back in a wrecked suit, eyes burning straight through him. Security rushed in. Rainer let them grab his arms but he didn't look away."You're marrying the woman who killed our brother," Rainer said. Loud enough for the front rows.Whispers exploded. A cousin dropped her bouquet. Jose's face went hot.He stormed down the aisle, shoes crushing petals. "You piece of shit. You always do this. Always have to drag everything into the mud the second I get something clean."Rainer smiled with his teeth. "Clean? You buried an empty box, Jose. She made sure of it."Security hauled him toward the doors. Rainer kept talking even as they dragged him out. "Ask her about the pills. Ask her why the grave dirt looked fresh last week."Jose stood there tasting metal. The priest cleare

Elias Is Gone

Jose stormed out of the bathroom waving the phone. "Explain this."Camille sat up in bed, silk slipping off her shoulder, hair still wrecked from sleep. She looked at the screen for a long moment. Then back at him with soft, tired eyes."That's my old number," she said quietly. "Someone's trying to hurt us on our wedding night. Probably him."Jose's grip tightened on the phone. "The grave photo. The words. That's not random."Camille stood and walked to him. She touched his chest like she was checking if he was still whole. "You're spiraling. Breathe." Her voice stayed gentle. "Elias is gone, Jose. We both know what he was. The drugs. The stealing. The way he kept pulling you and Rainer back into the dark every time you tried to climb out."She brushed her thumb across his jaw. "I hated watching you drown with them."Jose's throat worked. Part of him wanted to scream at her. Another part wanted to pull her back onto the bed and lose himself somewhere she couldn't follow.He stepped ba

I Have The Autopsy Report

Jose waited until Camille's breathing evened out before he picked up the phone. The screen glowed too bright in the dark suite. Another photo. This one hit harder.Elias at seventeen, gaunt but smiling, sitting on the kitchen counter in their old foster house. Rainer's arm slung around his shoulders. Jose stood in the background, laughing at something off-camera. The message underneath was simple.*You chose her over this. Tell me it was worth it.*His thumb hovered. He typed *Fuck you* then deleted it. Typed *Leave us alone* and deleted that too. In the end he just stared until the screen went black.Camille shifted behind him. "Come back to bed.""I'm fine," he lied."You're not." She didn't sound angry. She sounded tired in that way that always made him feel like the difficult one. She sat up, sheets pooling around her waist, and reached for him. Her fingers found the old scar on his ribs. She traced it slowly, like she owned it."Whatever he's sending you," she said quietly, "it's

I love You

Jose's phone wouldn't stop buzzing in his pocket. He ignored it through breakfast on the balcony, but each vibration crawled under his skin like something trying to get out.Camille cut into her fruit, perfectly calm. "You've checked it four times since we sat down.""It's work," he said.She gave him that small smile. "On our honeymoon. They can wait two more days."The vibration came again. Jose pushed his plate away. The ocean looked too bright. Everything here felt staged, like a set someone had built to convince him his life was fine.Camille reached across the table and covered his hand. "Whatever Rainer is doing, it ends when we get home. You block him. You let me handle the rest."He nodded even as his stomach turned. She made it sound so simple. Like drawing a line in the dirt and stepping over it clean.He pulled his hand back under the excuse of reaching for water. "I just need a minute."She watched him stand and walk inside. He felt her eyes on his back the whole way.In

You Didn't Leave Me Much Choice

The airport lights felt too harsh after days on the island. Jose kept his hand on Camille's lower back as they moved through arrivals. Her suitcase wheels clicked steadily beside his. She leaned into him while they waited for the car, and he let her, because it was easier than the alternative."Feels good to be back," she said. "Our bed. Our space."Jose made a sound of agreement. His phone sat heavy in his pocket. Midnight was five hours away. The storage unit twenty minutes from the new apartment. He had the excuse ready: late contractor meeting. Plausible enough. She would check, so it had to be.In the car Camille rested her head on his shoulder. Her hand found his thigh and stayed there the whole ride. Not squeezing. Just present. Just reminding him it was there.Their new apartment smelled like fresh paint and the flowers the realtor had left dying slowly in a vase by the door. Camille kicked off her shoes and stretched her arms above her head. "We get to make this ours now."Jo

He's Alive

"What was the contractor's name?"Camille asked it with her back to him, pouring coffee. Easy. Like asking about the weather.Jose had the answer ready. He'd built it in the car at one in the morning. "Dale Pruitt. Pruitt and Sons. They're bidding Harbor Street.""Pruitt." She set the pot down. "That's funny. I called Marcus at eight about the Harbor Street schedule. He says Pruitt dropped out of the bidding in August."The kitchen was very quiet. The paint smell had faded overnight, and now all Jose could smell was the dying flowers by the door.Camille turned around. She held one cup, his, and slid it across the counter with two fingers. She didn't pour one for herself. She hadn't touched coffee since the island. Tea only. He'd noticed it the way he noticed everything about her lately, from the wrong side of a pane of glass."Your car was at Harlan Self Storage on Route 9," she said. "Eleven fifty to twelve forty-five."He kept his face still. It took work."A friend runs the gate c

I Stopped Pretending

Camille set the wine on the counter and took her time with the foil."You said you wouldn't miss it," she said."I didn't."It was ten past seven. Jose sat at the island with his jacket on. The duffel stood by the front door where she'd had to step around it. She had stepped around it without a glance."I'm not going to talk you out of it." She worked the corkscrew in slow turns. "I only want to know if I'm allowed to ask where.""I don't know yet.""That's an honest answer. I'll take it."She poured one glass and slid it across to him. For herself she filled a tumbler at the tap and left it standing on the counter, untouched. Jose noticed. He noticed and filed it, the way he filed everything now, in a room he didn't have time to enter."Whatever came this morning," Camille said. "Did you look at all of it?"His stomach tightened. "Nothing came this morning.""Jose." Gentle. Almost fond. "

Does He Want To See Me

"How long has that Volvo been out there?"Rainer stood at the window with the lights off, one finger holding the blind open a half inch. He'd come up the stairs instead of the elevator. He hadn't taken off his jacket. He hadn't said hello either, which Jose had expected, and he hadn't looked at him yet, which he hadn't."I didn't see a Volvo.""Gray. Across the street, two cars down from the hydrant. Headlights off, engine on. I counted the exhaust for four minutes." Rainer let the blind snap shut. "Cops sit lower. That's somebody's friend.""Camille texted me an hour ago. She knew which building. She knew about the heat.""She knew about the heat." Rainer finally turned around. His face was gray under the stubble and there was dirt in the creases of his knuckles, old dirt, the kind that doesn't wash out in one night. "That's a love letter, Jose. That's the nicest threat I've ever heard.""I haven't decided what it is."

Sealed By

"I wasn't here then," Dennis Aldous said, for the third time.He had a habit of touching his tie, a thin gray one that sat a half inch too short, as if he'd borrowed it from a larger man. His office at Whitcomb & Daughters smelled of lilies and carpet glue. A framed photograph of a bearded founder watched them from behind his shoulder, looking disappointed in everyone."I understand," Jose said. "I'm not here to cause you trouble, Mr. Aldous. I'm settling my brother's estate and the lawyers want his file for the paperwork. A copy is fine.""You're the next of kin?""Our foster mother is. She's seventy-one and she's very sick. She sent me." The lie came out smooth and warm, the voice he used on zoning boards. He had never once felt guilty using it on strangers. It was only with the people he loved that the lying cost him anything, and he noticed that, and set it down for later.Aldous touched his tie. "Gene Pell ran this place for thi

Rested

"You smell like a funeral home," Camille said.She stood in the hallway on the other side of the door chain, which Jose had left on when he opened it six inches. A garment bag lay over one arm. In her other hand she held a steel thermos. She hadn't tried to look past him into the room."Lilies," she said. "Carnations, if I'm honest. The cheap ones they keep in the back.""How did you get past the desk?""I told them I was your wife." A small smile. "It's true, so it wasn't hard."She leaned a shoulder against the frame. Her face was pale under the corridor light, and her hand went to the doorjamb in a way that looked like habit, as if she needed it for a second. Then she took the hand back and the moment was gone."I brought the navy," she said. "For Friday. I wasn't sure you'd be home to get it.""You said you wouldn't chase me.""I'm not chasing. I'm standing in a hallway." She lifted the thermos slightly. "Gi

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