Chapter 9
The stretcher entered the chapel.
No flames had touched the coffin.
The cremation chamber remained unopened beyond the side doors.
The attendants stood rigid, shaken by how close they had come to making the mistake irreversible.
Daniel stepped aside only for the paramedics.
Marcus tried once more to move closer.
Daniel blocked him without touching him.
“I said no one touches her except the medical team.”
Marcus glared.
“You don’t control this family.”
Daniel looked at Clara being lifted carefully from the coffin.
“No. But you don’t control her body anymore.”
That silenced him.
Helena sat down suddenly in the front pew, as if her legs could no longer support the collapse of the performance.
The black lace handkerchief lay on the floor where she had dropped it.
Daniel picked it up.
Not to return it.
To keep his hands busy so they would not shake.
The paramedic secured Clara for transport.
Her breathing remained faint.
Her condition uncertain.
The baby’s outcome unknown.
But she was leaving the coffin.
That was enough for now.
Daniel walked beside the stretcher.
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This time, no one in the family walked ahead of him.
Read the full story 👉 Clara was lifted away from the coffin before anyone could finish what had been started, and Daniel made sure only medical hands reached her.
