Chapter 7 - The Doctor Breaks
Dr. Hale’s hand remained on the door.
Daniel repeated the question.
“What did you inject into my wife?”
The doctor looked at Helena.
She shook her head once.
A warning.
Marcus moved toward Daniel.
Clara’s sister, Julia, stepped between them.
“Don’t touch him.”
Marcus stared at her.
“Stay out of this.”
Julia’s face hardened.
“She moved, Marcus.”
“It was the baby.”
“Then why are you trying to close the coffin?”
The guests began pulling out their phones.
Dr. Hale realized the chapel had become a room full of witnesses.
Daniel moved closer.
“My wife’s watch recorded a heartbeat six hours after you declared her dead.”
The doctor’s face collapsed.
Helena whispered, “He’s bluffing.”
Daniel played the audio file.
Marcus’s recorded voice filled the chapel.
“How long will it keep her under?”
Then Dr. Hale:
“Long enough, unless the pregnancy changes the metabolism.”
Gasps spread through the room.
Helena stepped backward.
Dr. Hale released the door handle.
“It was not supposed to kill her.”
Daniel’s entire body went still.
“What was it?”
“A combination of sedatives and a neuromuscular agent.”
Julia covered her mouth.
Dr. Hale spoke faster.
“It reduced visible movement. It slowed her breathing. Her pulse became difficult to detect.”
“You declared her dead.”
“Helena said there was no time.”
Marcus lunged toward him.
“Shut up.”
Two guests restrained Marcus.
Daniel leaned over Clara again.
“She needs a hospital.”
“Yes,” Dr. Hale said. “Immediately.”
Helena moved toward the cremation control panel.
Daniel saw her.
So did Julia.
Julia grabbed her mother’s wrist.
“What are you doing?”
Helena pulled away.
“She is gone. You’re all panicking over reflexes.”
“Clara is alive,” Daniel said.
“You don’t know that.”
Daniel looked at Dr. Hale.
“Can she survive?”
The doctor swallowed.
“If her airway remained open and the dose was not repeated.”
Daniel stared at him.
“Repeated?”
Dr. Hale looked toward Marcus.
Marcus stopped fighting.
And Daniel understood there had been more than one injection.
The first put Clara into the coffin.
May you like
The second was intended to make sure she never woke up.
👉 Marcus had carried the second dose into the chapel—but someone had secretly replaced it before the funeral began.
