Chapter 2 - Ashes in Velvet
869 Words
Zaria was awakened by her stepmother, Elira, who looked at her coldly and said, “You better get up and get ready for your mother’s funeral.”
Just then, Zaria’s foggy eyes cleared, as if jolted back into reality. Tears flowed down her face like a waterfall.
Her mother was gone. The only light in her life was gone—and she was now left with this wicked woman and the father who had betrayed her mother.
Elira sneered. “You better drop the act and get ready. Even if you cry till your eyes gouge out, your dead mother won’t come back.”
Then she turned and left the room.
Zaria sobbed harder.
She didn’t know how long she stayed like that, but eventually, she stood up and went into the bathroom.
She took a bath and put on a simple black gown, with no makeup on.
When she stepped outside the huge mansion, she realized they had gone to the funeral without her.
A servant, looking uneasy, offered to take her there.
They arrived at the funeral grounds—a beautiful garden that had belonged to her mother.
She saw a crowd ahead, all dressed in black.
They seemed to be mourning, but something about the atmosphere felt off.
It didn’t feel like a funeral at all.
A servant handed her a white rose as she walked forward.
She made her way through the crowd and saw her mother’s coffin—a soft velvet purple, trimmed with gold.
As she looked at the coffin, face sour with grief, a single raindrop fell on her cheek.
Then the rain came, steady and cold.
She clutched the white rose tightly, standing alone while everyone else huddled under black umbrellas.
Whispers floated through the crowd—not of sorrow, but of scandal: her mother’s inheritance, her father’s betrayal, Elira’s sudden rise.
Zaria’s heart turned cold. Her mother wasn’t even buried yet, and her father had brought his mistress—and her illegitimate daughter—to the burial.
Elira was crying dramatically, seeking attention, yet her eyes were dry.
Zaria refused to look at her but caught sight of Saphina wearing one of her mother’s diamond pins.
As the coffin was lowered into the ground, Zaria stepped forward to drop her white rose—
—but a laugh rang out from the crowd behind her.
She turned and locked eyes with someone—an old ally of her mother.
Her gaze turned icy, and the man immediately looked away.
Turning back to the grave, she noticed Elira whispering something to Saphina.
Elira glanced at her coldly while Saphina chuckled, a cruel smile on her lips.
Zaria ignored them. She knelt beside her mother’s grave as one by one, everyone left—until only she remained.
She sobbed quietly.
“Mom… why did you leave me now? You left me in a den of lions. Mom, they’re going to devour me…”
The rain poured harder. She didn’t know how long she cried, but eventually, she fell asleep beside the grave.
A gentle tap on her arm woke her.
She opened her eyes to see her nanny, Nurse Halima.
“Come on, young mistress. You have mourned your mother enough,” she said gently.
Zaria rose slowly, brushing mud from her arms.
The rain had stopped. The storm in the sky was over—but the one in her heart was just beginning.
Nurse Halima handed her a folded note. “You won’t see me again. Elira has fired me. Be careful, Zaria.”
Zaria watched the woman who had raised her walk away.
She had spent most of her childhood in Nurse Halima’s arms when her mother was too busy.
Now she was leaving too.
Everyone was leaving her—leaving her alone in this cruel world.
She opened the note. Its message didn’t shock her. It only confirmed what she already feared.
“Your mother’s death was not natural. Be careful, or they’ll bury you next.”
Zaria’s gaze turned cold. It was true. Her mother had been murdered.
But who did it?
Back at the mansion, she marched to her father’s room.
As she approached, she heard voices—her father, Elira, and Saphina.
“A toast to the death of Miranda,” Elira said with a twisted cheer.
Saphina laughed. “But Mom, what about her daughter? That stingy woman left everything to Zaria. Not even a coin for Dad.”
Eric smirked. “Documents can be faked… and Zaria can disappear too.”
Laughter followed.
Zaria staggered back, tears welling in her eyes.
She rushed to her room and stared into the mirror.
A beautiful girl looked back at her—eyes red and swollen from crying.
She turned away and walked to the window.
The night was silent, but her thoughts were loud.
They murdered her.
They laughed over her grave.
And they planned to erase her too.
Zaria clutched the note to her chest, tears falling again.
She was a stranger in her own home. Her only source of light was gone.
“They buried more than a body today,” she whispered. “They buried truth.
But I will dig it back out.”
- Writer
