Her slender body was so cold, so icy, as cold as frost, penetrating like ice, no matter how much he tried to warm her up, he couldn’t. Hamish described Elisa’s features with immense nostalgia.
Tobias stood by, the morgue was inherently dark, the chilling temperature made it hard for anyone not to feel a shiver.
Seeing Hamish talking to a corpse, Tobias was petrified, cold sweat covering his back. The scene was so eerie; Tobias felt like Hamish had gone mad, his personality fragmented into that of a lunatic.
Tobias was quite superstitious and timid, never before had he come so close to a corpse. His gaze shifted to Elisa, seemingly not as terrified as one would expect.
He just felt a pang of sorrow. Just a couple of weeks ago, Elisa was fine, and now she had become a lifeless body. The next time he saw her, she might be nothing but ashes, just like the fetus removed from her womb four months ago.
Tobias felt a twinge of guilt and heartache. If Hamish was the “executioner” who killed Elisa, then he was the one who handed over the knife, an accomplice to the atrocity.
His cold indifference was also crucial in Elisa’s demise.
In an avalanche, not a single snowflake is innocent, the sun doesn’t suddenly set, and the straw that breaks the camel’s back is never the very last one.
…
Hamish had indeed gone mad. His current state resembled that of Elisa, who suffered from schizophrenia after he threw her down the stairs, causing her to miscarry their first child.
At times he claimed Elisa wasn’t dead but merely sleeping, then he would assert she was dead, then insist the figure lying there wasn’t Elisa, and then claim he was just having a nightmare, where Elisa was dead, and if he woke up, she would wake up too.
The next moment, Hamish abruptly bit down hard on his hand. They say extreme pain can jolt a person awake from a nightmare, but why, even as his hand bled, he remained unawakened?
Tasting the salty, metallic tang of blood in his mouth, his hand dripping with fresh blood, Hamish continued despite the pain, as if trying to bite through the entire back of his hand.
“Mr. Burns!” Tobias forcefully grabbed his hand. “What are you doing?”
“I dreamt that she died… She’s dead… I lost her…” Saying this, Hamish fiercely slapped himself.
Tobias felt a tightness in his chest, his eyes reddening with tears. “Mr. Burns, Mrs. Burns is truly gone, she’s dead…”
His face cold, Tobias sniffed, his voice hoarse. “Mr. Burns, when you asked me if you treated Mrs. Burns well, I lied to you. You didn’t treat her well at all. You caused her father’s death, bankrupted the Powell family, imprisoned her at home, depriving her of her freedom. Her stomach cancer is related to you.”
“The day Mrs. Burns’s father was sentenced, you made her kneel in the pouring rain for half an hour, subjected her to malicious slander from the media. You personally terminated her two pregnancies. Every time she had a hemorrhage due to her stomach cancer, you never believed her. It was you who turned her into a vegetable, caused her amnesia, and even this time, her paraplegia and being burnt alive in a sealed room, all because of you.”
“Mrs. Burns never owed you anything. It was always you who owed her.”
Struck as if by lightning, Hamish was well aware of these things. He just didn’t want to admit it. If he did, what would he have left to love Elisa with?
He owed Elisa too much. Even if he staked his life, he couldn’t make amends. Thus, he repeatedly deluded himself, everything he did was for Elisa’s good.
Hamish’s brows furrowed, his face contorted like that of a beast in dire straits.
As Tobias finished speaking, his throat felt dry and sore. He released Hamish’s hand. “Mr. Burns, let her go, bury Mrs. Burns. In life, you tormented her. Do you want to deny her peace even in death?”
Hamish shook his head. He couldn’t.
Afterward, Hamish began frantically conducting DNA tests on the body. However, no matter how many times he tested, it was always Elisa. With a stack of DNA test reports in his hand, tears streamed down his face as he cried louder and louder, like a child who had lost an important toy.
“This isn’t her, it’s not her… Why are they lying to me?” He felt as though the whole world had deceived him.
Fearing forhis well-being, Tobias had been following him closely these past few days, watching as his fits of madness grew more frequent. Tobias shook his head.
“Mr. Burns, if you believe it’s not her, then bury her.”
“I can’t bury her, it’s too cold down there…” It was only at moments like these that he seemed slightly more lucid.
…
Hamish felt as though the entire world had gone awry, his frayed nerves forming a net, tightening around him, reaching every cell in his body, until he convulsed in pain, his body wracked with spasms, finally relenting.
He held over 70 DNA test results in his hand, having visited every legitimate hospital in Chiwood. He even feared someone might tamper with the tests and had them conducted in various locations abroad.
Yet each result came back as a perfect match. He flipped through the DNA reports, needing just one, just one that didn’t fit…
But he reached the end, and not a single one was inconclusive. He had deceived himself for a week, and now he had to face the fact of Elisa’s death.
Elisa had truly passed away. The Elisa who had been married to him for five years, who cooked for him, the proud woman he had tormented into depression. She… was truly gone.
A chasm tore open in his heart, growing wider as he ripped at it.
Hamish had a crystal coffin made, placing it in a room maintained at a temperature below minus twenty degrees, so that Elisa’s body wouldn’t decay…
Tobias could no longer persuade him. The current Hamish was undoubtedly enclosed within his protective shell, unreachable. All Tobias could do was wait for Hamish to choose to come out on his own.
But as long as Elisa’s body remained, he would never be able to let go.
Watching Hamish sitting beside the crystal coffin, Tobias’s expression twisted into a bitter, self-deprecating smile.
Bluntly put, Hamish was utterly unqualified to lay Elisa to rest. Their relationship was the most familiar yet distant former relationship in the world. A former husband who didn’t even have the right to sign a death certificate.
…
Because Hamish refused to “acknowledge” Elisa’s death, very few people knew about her passing.
Mrs. Rugger returned home to Chiwood, finding everything changed. She silently shed tears for a long time, then composed herself to care for the injured Mimi.
Mimi lay in the pet hospital, nearly at death’s door several times, but managed to pull through each time. It remembered Elisa’s words, to live well and wait for her in its next life.
Mrs. Rugger sat by Mimi’s side, knitting a sweater. The pale yellow yarn gradually shortened, meticulously knitted to Elisa’s size.
Tears continuously fell from her swollen eyes, dampening the yarn in her hands, sticking to her fingers.
Mrs. Rugger’s hands trembled as she held the knitting needles, her vision blurry, unable to knit properly. She would knit a few stitches, then unravel them, pausing to wipe away her tears.
The person who used to keep her company was gone, even the playful ball of yarn had fallen silent. It felt as though it was just yesterday when she had advised Elisa to be happy.