Seraphina POV
"Dad, Dad," I called out. "Please don't cry, I am right here… Can't you see me?" I waved my hands in front of his face, eager for him to look up, hoping it would stop the sadness in his eyes.
People around him exchanged quiet condolences, with their faces carefully arranged into solemn expressions. I stepped back and my breath caught when I saw myself there, lying in the casket completely still.
"No! What is going on? How can this be happening?" My hands trembled as I moved toward him.
"Dad… Dad, what is happening? Why am I here and there at the same time?" My voice trembled as fear started to grip me, but he didn't answer.
He didn't even see me. I reached out to hold his hands, but my fingers went straight through, like air.
"Can anyone please tell me what's going on?" I shouted, my voice echoed through the hall and came back thin, like I was yelling down a well. No one reacted. Then it hit me.
Wait, am I dead? No. No, this can't be real.
I looked around again, and the truth landed hard on me. This is my funeral. My portrait was on an easel at the front of the hall, and my body was lying in the casket, not moving.
Everyone was mourning me.
I made myself breathe and actually see the room. The hall was washed in dull colors: soft grey, ivory, and deep burgundy curtains over the windows. Chairs lined up on a polished floor with people whose faces were arranged into a polite grief.
A bouquet of lilies and white roses rested elegantly near the casket, the sweet and delicate smell of lilies mixed with the thin aroma of an incense. The smoke curled and made my nose sting. Under that was old wood and floor polish, that clean, cold smell halls have.
Low murmurs slid through the room, low enough that you could barely hear what they were saying. I could hear the shuffle of shoes on marble and the faint squeak of chair legs.
Candles flickered at the edges of the room, their flames shivered every time someone walked past, and the lights jumped on the walls like they didn't want to stay still.
And then, from the corner of my eye, I saw my stepmother; she was putting on a dramatic cry while her friends comforted her.
But the real shock came when I caught a slight hint of a smirk on Marina, my half-sister's, face. The act was quick, almost not noticeable, because she tried to carefully mask it with the sorrow she wears so well, but I had seen it.
That little flash against all the solemn faces here sent a cold prickle down my neck. Something was wrong.
I turned as the familiar figure of Elias, my fiancé, came in looking sorrowful and apologetic. "I am sorry I'm late," he said to my father, bowing a little.
I felt my chest go tight as I ran towards him with desperation, hoping he would see or notice me.
"Eli, please tell them I am not dead; I'm still here." I tried to grab his arm to make him feel my presence, but it just went through him again as it did with my father. My hands just passed through him like smoke; my stomach dropped at the helplessness that I felt.
When the last rituals were done, people started to leave. Chairs scraped across the floor; whispered goodbyes faded into the distance. Then I heard it, their laughter. It was soft at first but later became clear, leaving me shocked.
My stepmother turned to my father, her voice dripping with fake sweetness. "Oh, honey, you were so believable. For a second I thought you were really mourning her."
My father laughed, cold and pleased with himself. "Of course, I had to look believable. Gossip spreads fast, and we can't have people questioning our family's or company's image," he said, glancing at my body in the casket like it was furniture.
My legs went weak in shock. His eyes shone with cruelty as he moved slowly closer to the casket. He leaned over and sneered with open contempt. "Oh, look at you, my poor daughter; you only have yourself to blame. If your mother hadn't left everything to you, maybe, just maybe you'd still be alive today."
My throat closed up. What is he talking about? No, my dad can't be this cruel. Their laughter caught me off again.
"So what if your mother left everything to you?" he went on, his voice smooth and haunting. "I schemed my way into her life, but that inconsiderate witch, after all these years, still gave me nothing. In the end, she was useless to me, and she paid the price. And now, so do you."
Elias was there, laughing with him, and a cold realization struck me.
Had he known all along? Has he always been part of this plan?
My heart shattered into a thousand pieces, and my stomach sank. I had loved him, trusted him. The truth stabbed me harder than any knife.
I stared at my father, fury in my eyes, with my hands shaking with rage. "Why? What did my mother ever do to you? All she did was fall in love with you; was that such a bad thing?" He didn't hear a word I said.
My stepmother stepped forward, her eyes dark with hatred as they fixed on my corpse. "How dare your mother take my husband? How dare she seduce him? And to bring you into this world."Her voice dropped to a wicked whisper. "That is why I poisoned you. I won't have you compete with my daughter or take what is hers. Everything that your mother left is all ours now. So goodbye. I hope you join your mother and become a happy family and rot in hell together."They laughed again, loud and loose like they had been holding it in, and I wanted to scream.
Then Marina leaned in and kissed Elias, her eyes shining with satisfaction. "Babe, now that she is finally gone, we don't have to hide our relationship anymore."
Elias put his arm around her and smiled. "I can't wait, my darling. Her endless love was very exhausting. Now I am finally free."
Marina continued, mockery dripping from her words,"I can't believe she was dumb enough to think that you loved her."
Those words cut straight through my heart; seeing them close like that, so naturally, told me everything that they had been together the whole time.
I can't believe I had loved this man, trusted him, and built my future around him, and all this time it's been a lie. My chest felt crushed, like a hand was squeezing my ribs until I couldn't breathe anymore.
A bitter laugh escaped my throat, but no sound came out. Marina was right about one thing: I was really gullible to have fallen for every word, every touch, and believed every promise from him. I was nothing more than just a pawn in their game.
My father grinned at Elias and said, "Don't worry, boy, you've got a share in the Carter group now."
I wanted to rush into them, scream, and make them feel even a piece of the pain I am feeling. But as I moved, I realized something horrifying. I couldn't.
I just passed through them like the wind through the curtains because I wasn't in their world anymore. The more I tried, the more useless I felt, like I was shouting into an empty room.
I dropped to my knees. My hands were shaking. My jaw ached from clenching. So this is how I died, surrounded by enemies I called family.
Anger, grief, and a hard kind of resolve burned through me.
If only I could get a second chance at life, if only I could come back, I'd take back everything that's mine, everything they think they won. I would make them regret everything they've done to me and my mom.
And there I stood, straightening my shoulders. My eyes were on them, burning with fire. "I might actually be dead," I whispered within me, but this isn't the end; they will pay for what they did.