His shoulders sagged. “I thought you’d be safer without me.”
“I went into labor alone,” I said, and my voice wavered despite myself. “Your mother stood in the hallway and wouldn’t even look at me. I signed hospital forms with shaking hands because you were ‘dead.’ I buried our daughter without you.”
He closed his eyes. “I know.”
“And you didn’t think that it was worth coming back to make sure I was okay?”
“I went into labor alone.”
He inhaled sharply.
“My aunt handled the paperwork,” he said after a moment. “She arranged the closed casket. She said it would protect everyone.”
He didn’t argue.
“And Carla?” I asked. “What did you tell her?”
He hesitated.
A knock came before he could answer.
He didn’t argue.
Carla stepped in without warning. “I want the truth.”
Ron looked at the floor.
Carla turned to me. “
We met at a bar,” she said. “He told me that his wife left him years ago, and that she took his daughter away in the middle of the night. We got together quickly, and not long after, I found out I was pregnant.”
“I was eight months pregnant, Carla,” I said, using her name to remind myself that she wasn’t the demon in this story. “I didn’t leave. I buried him, and I lost everything. I lost my baby because my body went into shock over losing Ron.”
Carla stared at him.
“I want the truth.”
“Is she lying?” she asked.
“No,” he said quietly.
Her voice cracked. “You let her bury you? Are you sick?”
He just stared at the floor.
Carla’s hands trembled. “And you named our daughter after your first wife?”
“Is she lying?”
Silence filled the room.
Then the little girl’s voice drifted in from the hallway. “Mama?”
“Katie girl,” Carla exclaimed, turning around. “You were supposed to be napping!”
“I’m not here to take away what you have,” I said. “I just want justice. I lost my baby the day he disappeared, and he admitted to knowing that the entire time. I will not be painted as unstable so he can stay comfortable.”
“Mama?”
Carla looked at him with something colder than anger. “You lied to both of us.”
And this time, Ron had no words left.
The next morning, I did not sit around and cry. I started making calls.
At the county office, I requested a certified copy of the death certificate.
The clerk slid it across the counter. “If you need additional copies, there’s a fee.”
“You lied to both of us.”
I studied it carefully. The coroner’s name was printed neatly, but the signature above it didn’t match the signature archived on the public record.
I looked up. “Who verifies these?”
The clerk hesitated.
“The funeral home submits documentation. The attending physician signs. After that, it’s processed.”
“Processed without checking the body?”
Her expression changed. “Ma’am, I don’t handle that.”
“Who verifies these?”
