Her Wedding, My Funeral

The psychopath my mother had been hunting for ten years was killing me when she called.

Every word out of her mouth landed like gunpowder: "Your cousin's getting married next week. You're coming back to be her bridesmaid."

"Her fiancé used to be your boyfriend. If you don't show up as the bridesmaid, what will people think of her?"

By then I'd already lost too much blood. Consciousness was slipping away. I didn't have the strength to speak.

But she didn't notice anything wrong. All that came through the phone was impatient scolding: "What are you, dead? Can't even get a single word out?"

"I'm telling you, even if you're going to die, you finish your bridesmaid duties first."

Two days later, she was called to a scene that would haunt anyone who saw it — a young woman, dismembered.

One glance at the body and she knew who'd done it.

She never knew the body was mine. Her most hated daughter.

……

My remains were discovered by workers draining a septic tank.

Three officers in heavy-duty respirators spent an entire day and night sifting through the waste before they recovered all of me.

When my mother arrived at the precinct, her face was grim. "Time of death? Has the victim been identified?"

Chief Examiner Carlson pulled off his gloves, exhausted. "Preliminary estimate puts death at two to three days ago."

"The body sustained severe mutilation. Facial features and fingerprints are both unusable. I've already submitted a request for DNA analysis. Three days at the earliest for results."

At the case briefing, after Carlson finished presenting his autopsy findings, every detective in the room was furious.

"The victim was barely in her twenties. Whole life ahead of her. It's sickening."

"This was torture before murder. Absolutely savage. What kind of animal does this?"

One of the veteran detectives who'd worked under my mother for years froze mid-thought, then turned to her with a look that was seeking confirmation.

"Detective Donaldson. The method. It looks like him, doesn't it?"

My mother's gaze had been fixed on the autopsy report. At those words, her eyes snapped up.

"It's Cedric Cobb. I've studied him for ten years. There's no mistake."

"He's deeply superstitious. Believes the retina preserves the last image a person sees before death. So every victim who's ever died at his hands has had their eyes destroyed."

The room went quiet. Every face hardened.

The newer detectives hadn't worked the case from a decade ago, but every one of them knew Cedric Cobb's name.

The disappearances had shaken the entire country. The investigators who worked that case still carried the weight of it. Now, after ten years of silence, he was back — killing again, for reasons no one could explain.

My mother, as captain of the Criminal Investigation Unit and the person who knew Cobb best, immediately assembled a task force and deployed them to canvass the area.

Uncle Arthur, the veteran detective who'd been at her side for years, was also her friend and former classmate from the police academy.

A foot injury kept him stuck at his desk, combing through files.

Once everyone else had filed out, his gaze settled on my mother again.

He looked her over, taking in what she was wearing.

"You've been so busy you didn't even change clothes. This case couldn't have come at a worse time. Must've thrown a wrench in helping Elisa get ready for the wedding."

At the mention of my name, the seriousness on my mother's face snapped instantly into open hatred.

"Why would I help that disaster prepare for anything? Kate's the one getting married. She's just the bridesmaid."

Arthur frowned. "Wait. You're saying Elisa's boyfriend is marrying Kate? How is that possible?"

"What's so impossible about it? Any man in his right mind would choose Kate over the animal who got her own father killed."

Arthur let out a heavy sigh. "It's been three years, Faye. How can you still not let it go? Roderick's death hit me hard too, but it wasn't all Elisa's fault."

"She's carried that guilt every single day. Ever since you threw her out, she's never stopped thinking about you."

"She told me herself. Whatever you asked of her, she'd do it. No matter what."

My mother cut him off as though she couldn't stand to hear another word, her voice shaking with fury. "Like I don't know what she is? All she does is play the victim in front of other people. She says she'll listen to me? Then why won't she come be Kate's bridesmaid? It's been two days and she hasn't even returned a single call."

"She's a selfish, heartless animal. She deserves to lose her own boyfriend."

Arthur shook his head but said nothing more. He wanted to, but in the end, it was someone else's family, and he knew better than to push.

I stood right in front of her, listening to every word of hatred she had for me.

My tears fell and would not stop.

Mom, I'm not selfish.

I just —

I'm already dead. I died the day you called me about my cousin.

The body you saw today, in pieces — that was me.