Chapter 2 - The Woman in the CoffinAdrian left Beacon House without finishing dinner.
He drove to Mount Auburn Cemetery.
Rain streamed across the windshield as he stopped beside the Mercer family plot.
Julianne Mercer.
1978–2002.
Beloved Wife.
He had chosen those words himself.
Twenty-four years had passed, yet Adrian remembered every detail of the funeral.
The accident had occurred on a winter night near Cape Cod.
Julianne's car had gone over an embankment and burned.
Police said she died instantly.
Her body had been badly injured, so Adrian had been discouraged from seeing her closely.
His father, Leonard Mercer, had handled almost everything.
“The last thing Julianne would want is for you to remember her that way,” Leonard had said.
Adrian had accepted it.
He had been twenty-five, broken, and exhausted.
During the private viewing, the funeral director allowed him five minutes beside the coffin.
Adrian had placed Julianne's emerald ring on the woman's finger himself.
Then he had kissed her forehead through a lace covering.
Now he stood before the headstone and remembered something he had forgotten for decades.
The woman's hand had been cold.
But there had been a small scar near the thumb.
Julianne did not have one.
At the time, Adrian had assumed the accident had caused it.
Tonight that explanation felt terrifyingly weak.
His phone rang.
His father.
Adrian stared at the name before answering.
“Where are you?” Leonard demanded.
“At Julianne's grave.”
Silence.
Then:
“Why?”
“I saw her ring tonight.”
Another silence.
Longer.
“That's impossible.”
Leonard's answer came too quickly.
Adrian's heartbeat changed.
He had not told his father what kind of ring he had seen.
Yet Leonard had not asked.
“You knew which ring I meant,” Adrian said.
“Of course I knew.”
“No. You knew before I explained.”
“Adrian—”
“Who did we bury?”
The call went quiet.
Finally Leonard said:
“Go home.”
Adrian looked down at Julianne's name.
“Who did we bury, Dad?”
Leonard disconnected.
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And Adrian understood that the ring was no longer the strangest thing about that night.
His father was afraid of it.
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