I Traded Three Years of Love for One Perfect Revenge Chapter 09
At the crematory, pale gray smoke drifted from the stack.
I walked outside one slow step at a time, carrying my mother’s urn in my arms.
The sky was dark and overcast, and a light rain was falling.
A brand-new Porsche sports car was parked near the entrance.
Cole and Brielle stood in front of it beneath a black umbrella.
They had come to gloat.
“How sad,” Brielle said.
She wore a custom black dress that looked better suited to an exclusive cocktail party than a crematory.
“Not a single person came to say goodbye?”
“Then again, I guess your relatives are too embarrassed to be seen with the mother of a thief.”
I stopped.
Then I looked at them calmly.
“Move.”
Cole stepped directly into my path.
“What’s with the attitude?”
“We flew all the way from Boston to pay our respects to your mother.”
—
“You can’t even say thank you?”
He reached toward the urn in my arms.
“This thing looks cheap. What is it, plastic?”
“If I’d known, I could’ve thrown you a couple hundred bucks for a decent wooden one.”
I jerked backward and clutched the urn tighter.
“Don’t touch her!”
Brielle covered her mouth with a little laugh.
“Ew, Cole, don’t touch that. That’s creepy.”
“I heard she died with her eyes open.”
“She probably died too ashamed to show her face in heaven.”
As she spoke, she deliberately edged closer to me.
Her foot slipped on the wet pavement.
She cried out and fell toward me.
I instinctively moved aside.
Cole reacted instantly, grabbing my arm and yanking hard.
“Why’d you move? Couldn’t you see Brielle was falling?”
The urn flew out of my arms.
It arced through the air and slammed onto the wet concrete.
—
The lid shattered.
My mother’s pale ashes spilled across the pavement.
Rainwater carried them into the mud until they became a gray-black sludge.
Everything went silent.
Even the sound of the rain disappeared.
Brielle hid against Cole’s chest and patted her own chest.
“Oh my God. That scared me.”
Then she looked down.
“Oh no. The ashes went everywhere.”
“Nora, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. The wind caught me.”
Cole kept an arm around her and took a step back, staring at the muddy ashes with disgust.
“Enough. They were going into the ground anyway.”
“What difference does it make if they’re already mixed with dirt?”
“Come on, Brielle. You’re going to ruin your shoes.”
Slowly, I lowered myself to my knees.
I reached into the mud and tried to gather my mother’s ashes with my bare hands.
Gravel cut into my fingers.
—
I felt nothing.
Cole looked down at me.
“Remember to post your withdrawal statement online.”
“Don’t make us ask again.”
The Porsche roared away.
Its tires sprayed muddy water all over me.
I stayed on my knees in the rain.
Handful by handful, I gathered the mud-soaked ashes back into the broken urn.
My tears disappeared into the rain running down my face.
Mom.
Just wait.
I swear I’ll make them kneel at your grave and beg you for forgiveness.