CHAPTER 2: THE WOMAN INSIDE THE COFFIN

The second knock shattered the silence.

No one moved.

No one dared breathe.

The maid grabbed the broken edge of the coffin and screamed.

"Help me open it!"

The husband stood frozen.

His face had turned completely pale.

"N-No..." he whispered.

But the funeral director rushed forward with two attendants.

Together they ripped away the shattered lid.

The room gasped.

There she was.

Sophia.

Her face was deathly pale.

Her lips were blue.

Her eyes remained closed.

But her fingers...

They were moving.

Tiny.

Weak.

Desperate.

"She's alive!" someone shouted.

Chaos exploded.

Guests scrambled backward while others rushed forward.

A doctor attending the funeral dropped to his knees beside the coffin.

He pressed trembling fingers against Sophia's neck.

A long second passed.

Then his eyes widened.

"There's a pulse!"

The funeral hall erupted.

"Call an ambulance!"

"She's breathing!"

"Move!"

The husband finally stumbled toward the coffin.

"Sophia!"

But before he could touch her, the maid shoved him away.

"You don't deserve to say her name."

Everyone stared.

The husband looked at her in disbelief.

"What are you talking about?"

The maid pointed at Sophia's wrists.

"Look."

Dark bruises circled both wrists.

Fresh bruises.

Not from illness.

From restraints.

Then she revealed what she had found earlier while preparing Sophia's body.

Tiny scratches beneath Sophia's fingernails.

Blood on the inside of the coffin lid.

She had been trying to escape.

Trying to scream.

Trying to survive.

The husband backed away in horror.

"I... I didn't know..."

The maid's eyes burned with fury.

"No."

"You never wanted to know."

The ambulance doors slammed shut moments later.

As paramedics fought to save Sophia's life...

A single question echoed through every guest's mind.

If she hadn't died...

Who buried her alive?