The Pulse Beneath His Fingers
Chapter 02 - The Pulse Beneath His Fingers
The room erupted.
Beatrice called the video a performance. She claimed Amelia had become paranoid after finding problems in the foundation. Lucas placed the court order on the casket and demanded that no one touch the body until an independent doctor arrived.
Ethan barely heard them.
On Lucas’s phone, the video continued. Amelia accused Beatrice of creating false vendors and moving charitable donations into private accounts. Beatrice warned that exposing the truth would destroy Ethan along with the company.
Then the recording shook. Amelia whispered, “What did you put in my tea?”
The screen went dark.
Ethan stood so suddenly that his chair fell backward. “Why was the service arranged this quickly?”
Beatrice’s eyes hardened. “Because grief should not become a public spectacle.”
“And why did your doctor refuse an autopsy?”
“He respected her wishes.”
“Amelia never made that request.”
The private physician, Dr. Lowell, moved toward the door. Lucas blocked him. At the same moment, Ethan felt something beneath his fingertips.
A flutter.
So faint he thought grief had invented it.
He pressed two fingers against Amelia’s wrist. For three unbearable seconds, there was nothing. Then it came again—a weak, uneven pulse.
“She’s alive.”
No one moved.
Ethan shouted it a second time. Lucas called emergency services while Ethan opened Amelia’s collar and kept her airway clear. Several guests began filming as Beatrice ordered them to stop.
Paramedics arrived within minutes. Their monitor detected a dangerously slow heartbeat. Amelia had not died; she had been placed into a state that closely mimicked death.
Dr. Lowell tried to leave through the side hall, but security detained him.
As the paramedics lifted Amelia from the casket, her eyelids trembled.
Ethan followed the stretcher, but Lucas caught his arm.
“There is more on the phone,” he said. “The video shows you entering the library before she collapsed.”
Ethan looked toward Beatrice. For the first time, fear replaced her authority.
“I went because Amelia asked me to,” he said.
Lucas’s expression remained cold. “Then tell the police why the recording also shows you taking the teacup.”
Ethan looked at the floor.
May you like
He had taken it because his mother ordered him to destroy it.
At the hospital, Amelia fought for her life while detectives opened an investigation. Ethan sat outside intensive care with her wedding ring in his palm, knowing she might survive only to learn that he had protected the person who nearly buried her alive.
