Chapter 5 - The Glass WallThe minister spoke a few quiet words from his book, his voice carried away by the wind.
When the lowering straps began to creak, lowering the tiny white box into the dark earth, Meline stepped forward. She pulled a single white rose from her coat, kissed the stem, and dropped it onto the casket.
I reached into my pocket, pulling out my gold wedding ring—the band I had taken off six months ago during my late-night dinners with Elena—and held it in my palm.
"Meline," I choked out, standing up, stepping toward her, offering the ring with trembling hands. "Meline... please... come home. Let me take care of you. Let me fix this. I'll give up the company. I'll fire everyone. I'll spend the rest of my life making this right."
Meline looked down at the gold ring resting in my muddy palm.
A faint, sad smile touched her pale, chapped lips.
"You can't fix a grave, Damen," she said softly.
"I didn't know!" I pleaded, tears burning my eyes as I reached out to grab her hand, but my fingers touched only cold air as she smoothly stepped back out of my reach. "I swear to God on Leo's life, I didn't know Elena went to the apartment! Bernard lied to me! He told me you were resting!"
"You didn't answer your phone, Damen," Meline said, her hazel eyes fixing onto mine with terrifying, unshakeable clarity. "Bernard didn't press the ignore button twenty-five times. You did."
Every word she spoke landed like a hammer blow against my chest.
"I sat in that dining room for three hours six nights ago waiting for you to come home," Meline continued, her voice steady and quiet. "I called you when my stomach hurt. I called you when the doorman rang the intercom. I called you when Elena broke the glass on our door. And every time it rang... I heard your voice in my head telling me I was being paranoid."
She looked out over the stone monuments of the cemetery, the rain dripping from the edge of her umbrella onto her dark coat.
"I realized something while I was lying on the cold marble floor waiting for the paramedics, Damen," she murmured. "I realized that the man I married ten years ago didn't exist anymore. He died long before Leo did. He was replaced by a CEO who valued a hedge fund investor's daughter more than his own wife's life."
"I destroyed them, Meline!" I yelled frantically, stepping closer, desperate to break through the invisible glass wall she had built around herself. "I ruined Courtland Fund! I surrendered my patents! Elena is facing felony charges! I burned everything to avenge him!"
Meline looked at me, and for the first time, a flicker of profound pity crossed her face.
"You didn't burn it for Leo, Damen," she whispered. "You burned it to relieve your own guilt. But guilt doesn't bring my baby back."
She turned her back on me, taking her brother's arm.
"Meline! Please!" I begged, stumbling after her through the wet grass, but Thomas stepped between us, holding his arm out, stopping me in my tracks.
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"Don't follow us, Damen," Thomas said coldly. "If you ever come near my sister again, I won't call the police. I'll make sure you join your son."
I stood alone in the pouring rain, watching the four black umbrellas walk slowly down the path toward a waiting silver sedan, leaving me standing beside the open, muddy grave of my son.
