I Heard Their Hearts Before Mine Stopped Chapter 07

I Heard Their Hearts Before Mine Stopped Chapter 07

That afternoon my body was taken to the funeral home.

Mom insisted on helping prepare my body herself.

She brought a basin of warm water and a clean towel, hands shaking as she tried to wipe the mud from my arms.

But my body was already stiff. No matter how hard she tried, my arms stayed curled.

“Lena, Mom’s cleaning you up. We’ll put you in pretty clothes.” Tears fell onto my chest as she worked.

“Mom didn’t mean to ignore you. I was just scared of damaging your heart device. I do care about you, Lena. Say something to Mom, please?”

She tried to comb my hair, but the sand caught in it snapped several teeth off the comb.

Dad walked in carrying a brand-new dress.

He had driven to every store nearby to find it in exactly my size.

“Lena, you said you wanted this dress, remember? Dad bought it for you. Sit up and try it on.” He laid the dress beside my body.

I was only a soul, watching them fall apart around my lifeless shell.

Their regret, their tears, their atonement meant nothing in front of my cold corpse.

They carried no weight. None of it meant anything anymore.

—

News of my Stanford University acceptance spread throughout the town three days later.

The local news station had come to interview Stonewater County’s only student admitted through Early Action. Now its cameras stood outside the funeral home.

They had discovered that the girl who should have been celebrating was lying in the mortuary cooler.

My college counselor, Ms. Turner, and the high school principal rushed over.

Ms. Turner clutched the Stanford acceptance letter, her expression grim.

The moment she walked in, she thrust the letter against Dad’s chest.

“Mr. Foster, this is the ‘daughter who could not get into a good school and was jealous of her sister’ you described!” Her voice trembled. “Lena ranked first for three years! Stanford admitted her through Early Action! Sadie’s GPA and SAT scores were not competitive even for an average four-year college!”

Dad’s hands shook violently as he held the letter with the university seal.

Mom leaned in, staring at my name.

“How… how is this possible? Sadie said Lena tampered with her college applications…”

“That was Sadie,” the principal said coldly. “She stole Lena’s Common App login and tried to sabotage the application. When she found it

—

locked, she faked a power outage. The district and police traced the IP address and login records to Sadie’s phone. She was covering her tracks!”

Sadie, who had been hiding behind the door, collapsed to the floor.

By then a crowd of reporters and onlookers had gathered outside the funeral home.

The story of “parents who favored one daughter and drove their gifted, Stanford-bound daughter to death” became Colorado’s biggest news.

Owen’s phone kept vibrating in his pocket.

When he answered, his father’s furious voice came through. “Owen, do not return to Mercer Holdings. The board has suspended you. The Mercer family cannot be tied to this scandal. Cut all ties with Sadie!”

Owen hung up without a word and slumped against the wall like a hollowed-out skeleton.

Dad also received a call from the municipal office where he worked. He was placed on indefinite leave pending investigation because of the public scandal.

Relatives and neighbors who used to be close now stood outside the funeral home, whispering.

“I never would have guessed. They always seemed so respectable, but they favored one daughter that badly.”

“Exactly. They drove their talented daughter to death and kept protecting the daughter who lied about everything. They brought this on themselves.”