The Love I Buried With My Grandma Chapter 04

The Love I Buried With My Grandma Chapter 04

My mind went white with static, a ringing in my ears that wouldn’t stop.

I watched the doctor’s mouth move and understood none of it.

When I came back to myself, he was handing me a form for claiming the body.

“Sign here, and you can take your Grandma home.”

I don’t remember signing my name. I don’t remember carrying her ashes back to the house.

The vase at home still held her favorite white magnolias. Her wind chime by the window still stirred in the breeze.

But she was never coming back.

The grief was so total I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t even make a sound.

Holding the urn, I called every relative and old friend one by one to tell them.

When it was Daniel’s turn, my finger hovered over his name for a few seconds before I pressed it.

The call connected—then hung up instantly.

I called again. Hung up again.

Out of spite, I called dozens of times.

Finally, it went straight to voicemail.

Fury boiled over. I grabbed a glass and hurled it, and it shattered right against the sunflower painting.

Water streaked down the canvas, glass scattered across the floor.

None of it put out the fire in my chest.

My phone buzzed.

A message from Chloe, dripping with provocation.

[Sorry, Nora. Daniel was asleep, that’s why he didn’t pick up.]

Attached was a photo of the two of them curled up together, intimate and unbothered.

I stared at it for a few seconds, then opened Daniel’s laptop.

I pulled together all their chat logs, transfer records—everything, organized and complete.

Just before logging out, I remembered the button camera I’d sewn into Grandma’s clothes, in case she ever wandered off again.

I opened the app. The footage showed Chloe leaning in close to Grandma, mocking her.

“You know what? Your granddaughter’s husband’s been sleeping with me, and you’re still smiling like everything’s fine?”

“Your granddaughter’s about to get kicked out of the Ashford name too! The house, everything they own—that’s all mine!”

Grandma’s eyes went wide. She raised a hand to strike her, and Chloe shoved her back, hard.

She toppled backward and hit the ground.

Chloe laughed, satisfied, propping her up against the railing.

“Serves you right. You should’ve died sooner.”

Watching it, something metallic rose in my throat, my heart wringing itself into a knot.

I forced the feeling down and sent the footage to Mark, my attorney.

[Does this count as murder?]

[Yes.]

I forwarded him everything, then copied it all onto a flash drive too.

It rained lightly the day of the funeral. Daniel didn’t show up.

I called him a dozen times before he finally picked up.

His voice was impatient. “What is it now? I’m busy.”

“Too busy to come to Grandma’s funeral?”

Daniel paused a long time, then sighed.

“Chloe went to see her just this morning, and she was perfectly fine. Nora, you keep making scenes and it’s exhausting.”

“Today’s Chloe’s exhibition opening. Whatever it is, it can wait.”

The line went dead.

An hour later, Chloe sent through a video.

Daniel had her pinned against a door, the two of them kissing.

“Daniel, if we do this, what happens to Nora?”

“I still need her to bring in investors right now, so let’s wait. Once the studio’s up and running, I’ll divorce her and send the old woman back to the countryside for good…”

“You have no idea how bad she smells. It makes me sick.”

…

The video ran a full thirty minutes.

I watched every second, without skipping.

A moment later, Chloe sent two more taunting messages.

[Nora, Daniel’s heart belongs to me. Whatever I say, he believes. What do you even have to fight me with?]

[Take the hint. Your grandma’s dead. You should be gone from the Ashford name too.]

I didn’t reply. I just held the umbrella over the urn, shielding it more carefully.

Grandma deserved to leave this world without regrets. Everyone who owed her a debt would pay it.

I picked up the urn and the flash drive.

Then, at the head of a procession of mourners, I went to Chloe Sinclair’s exhibition opening.