11/06/2025
"During my father’s wake, my eight-year-old sister stood beside his coffin without saying a word.
Everyone thought grief had frozen her heart…
Until that night, when she lay beside him — and what happened next left us breathless.
The wake smelled of lilies and candle wax.
Lily — my little sister — stood motionless in front of the coffin, her tiny hands gripping the edge as if holding on to him could bring him back.
She didn’t cry. She didn’t speak. She just stared at his face — waiting, as if she believed he might still open his eyes.
The adults whispered that she didn’t understand. But I knew better. Lily always understood.
When the ceremony ended, people began to leave in soft murmurs.
Lily refused to move.
Two relatives had to lift her away so they could close the casket for the night.
She didn’t resist — she just stared at Dad one last time, her lips trembling like she wanted to say something… but couldn’t.
That night, the house felt hollow.
Mom — our stepmother, Rebecca — sat at the kitchen table in silence. She’d only been married to Dad for three years, but she looked shattered.
I was sixteen, old enough to sense there were secrets in this house. Dad had been afraid, I could tell — before the “accident.”
Later, when I went to bed, Lily crawled into my blanket without a word. She held the photo of Dad from the wake against her chest.
At midnight, I woke up — and she was gone.
The front door stood wide open.
A cold wind swept through the hallway.
I ran outside barefoot, across the gravel, to the funeral home across the street.
The door was unlocked.
Inside, only candles flickered around the coffin.
And there — lying beside our father — was Lily. Her head on his chest, eyes open, whispering something I couldn’t hear.
Then I saw her.
Rebecca.
Standing behind the coffin, frozen, her face white as chalk.
And when Lily whispered again, Rebecca gasped —
then murmured, almost to herself:
“No… she knows.”
To be continued in the comments 👇👇"