Leilani.
The rest of the funeral felt rushed as one minute, I was watching the priest say the important prayers and complete the rites of passage for the dead, and the next minute, the large silver coffin was being lowered to the ground.
For some reason, Jarek had specifically asked that his coffin be never opened during the ceremony so that my last memory of him wouldn't be that of him cold and stiff with cotton buds stuffed into his nostrils and ears, and even though I found that absurd, especially since I had seen him dead at the hospital, I didn't complain.
I couldn't.
Truthfully, I was even glad because this way, it would be easy for me to manipulate my mind into thinking that the last time I had seen him, he had been fast asleep.
That he was probably somewhere else now, somewhere better… somewhere he got all of his heart's desires and—
"Leilani, we can go now," Maya's voice slipped into my ears, snapping me out of the haze I had been lost in.
