My Family Saved Their Adopted Daughter First, Then I Died Before Their Eyes Chapter 10

My Family Saved Their Adopted Daughter First, Then I Died Before Their Eyes Chapter 10

Three days later, my funeral was held at a small cemetery.

There were no relatives, no friends, no coworkers.

Only the three of them.

A light rain fell over the headstone and the soaked grass.

Richard’s hair had turned white overnight.

He was still wearing the uniform from his job as the park’s emergency response supervisor, but two buttons were fastened wrong and his collar sat crooked.

In both hands, he clutched the rescue equipment operating manual that had been soaked in my blood and

could never be washed clean.

Laura had grown so thin she was almost unrecognizable.

She knelt in front of my headstone, wiping the rain from my photograph again and again.

Beside her sat a cake with no strawberries on it.

Ethan had already been fired from the hospital, and his clinical privileges had been suspended.

He wore a wrinkled shirt and held my death certificate and the original diagnosis report in his hands.

For a long time, he stared at my headstone, barely blinking.

“Claire, I didn’t go to the hospital today. I’ll come see you every day from now on.”

He tried to press the death certificate against the headstone, but the rain soaked through the paper, and it

kept slipping down.

Richard pulled a letter from his pocket.

It was the letter I had left in my bedroom drawer before I died.

According to my wishes, they had not kept my ashes.

After the funeral, they were going to scatter them at sea.

He unfolded the letter and read the words aloud, his voice trembling.

“Dad, Mom, Ethan:

“If I die, please scatter my ashes in the ocean.

“I don’t want to stay in that house anymore. There was never a place for me there.

“Lily needs to feel secure, so she can have all of your love.

“I hope the three of you have a peaceful life together.”

When Laura heard the last line, she let out a broken cry and lunged forward, trying to snatch the letter back.

“Claire, don’t go. I know I was wrong. I’ll never choose her over you again.”

But all she could grab was the rain–soaked paper, the ink bleeding across her palm.

Richard dropped to his knees in the mud and covered his face with both hands, his sobs echoing through the

empty cemetery.

I floated above them, watching as they finally admitted what they had done only after everything was over.

I thought seeing them like this might finally make me feel better.

Maybe I would soften.

But I felt nothing at all.

The love, trust, and support I had begged them for again and again had finally come.

Too late.

All of it could only be left here in front of my headstone.

I didn’t need any of it anymore.

The wind swept over the cemetery, carrying the cold, damp mist toward the coast.

I turned away and let it carry me higher and higher.

I never looked back.

Goodbye.

The End