“This is your last chance—bring Jason out, or deal with the consequences!”
Before I could respond, my phone buzzed in my pocket. Daniel snatched it up, confident it would be Jason calling.
But when he heard the voice on the other end, his face turned to stone.
“Emma, are you still not back yet? The hospital says the morgue is full. They need to cremate Jason quickly.”
“Cremate…?”
Daniel’s face went black. A second later, he gave a sharp, mocking laugh into the phone, though his eyes burned with rage.
“Still acting? Now your friend’s even making up excuses like cremation?”
Grace Johnson’s furious voice shot through the line:
“Daniel Brooks, are you even a man? Your son is dead, and you dare say we’re making excuses? You’ll regret this!”
She kept cursing, her voice hoarse from anger, defending me and grieving for Jason.
But nothing mattered anymore.
Whatever fragile feelings I still had for Daniel—
in the moment Jason died with his eyes open in despair—
were completely extinguished.
Daniel’s response was to hurl the phone at my face, his voice thunderous:
“Enough! I won’t watch this farce any longer. I’ll call the police right now and have them punish you both!”