Chapter 7 - The Final Puzzle Piece
As the middle-aged woman continued to yell, Elias stood perfectly still in the center of the room. Slowly, mechanically, he raised his right hand. His fingertips brushed against his left cheek, tracing the raised, angry red line of the fresh scratch.
The physical pain of the wound suddenly unlocked the repressed, chaotic memories of the morning. It hadn't been a random accident. The scratch wasn't from a stray branch or a piece of shattered glass. It was from a struggle. The memory flashed behind his eyes—Derek’s shadowy figure, a sudden violent altercation in the hallway before Elias was knocked unconscious, waking up to the news of his wife’s "fatal fall." He felt the scratch, and the horrific truth crystallized in his mind. Derek had trapped her. And the family—her own flesh and blood—were the clean-up crew. They were sealing the casket to hide the definitive, brutal evidence of murder before Elias could see it.
