Chapter 5 - The Funeral of a Lies
Three days later, in the grand cathedral of Blackwood City, a solemn funeral service was taking place.
The church was filled with black silk, towering white candles, and the tearful whispers of the local gentry. At the front of the altar stood two polished mahogany caskets—both empty, symbolically holding the memory of Lady Eleanor Sterling and her unborn child, whose bodies had supposedly been "swept away by the unforgiving current."
Daniel stood at the podium, dressed in immaculate black velvet. He wiped a stray tear from his cheek with a lace handkerchief, his voice trembling with practiced sorrow.
"My heart is shattered into a thousand pieces," Daniel declared to the mourning crowd, his voice echoing under the high vaulted ceiling. "My beloved Eleanor... my unborn heir... taken by an act of God. I swear upon their memory, I shall devote the rest of my days to honoring their names."
Beside the altar, Lady Genevieve sat in a velvet chair, her face hidden behind a thick black lace veil. Beneath the dark fabric, her lips were curved into a faint, satisfied smile. The public sympathy was overwhelming. The local magistrate had already signed off on the transfer of the vast Sterling ancestral estate entirely into Daniel’s name.
From the back of the cathedral, hidden high in the shadowy organ loft, a figure wrapped in a heavy hooded cloak watched the entire spectacle.
It was Eleanor.
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Her body was weak, but her mind was razor-sharp. She had crept into the city under the cover of dusk, leaving Julian safely in Martha’s care at the hidden cabin. Watching her husband cry crocodile tears over an empty coffin ignited a fire in her chest that burned hotter than any fever.
"Enjoy your theater, Daniel," Eleanor murmured silently, stepping back into the darkness of the rafters. "Wear your black velvet. Because the next funeral in this church will be yours."
