I Died to End Their Lie novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: The Identification

The county morgue was a low brick building behind the courthouse.

I was there before my parents were, though I never saw how I got there.

The corridor lights were harsh and white.

A detective stood outside a steel door with a folder, and a woman in a white coat stood beside him.

Dad came through the main doors at two in the morning with Mom clinging to his arm.

Her fingernails had left marks in his sleeve.

"Mr. and Mrs. Rittenhouse?" the detective said. "I'm sorry for your loss."

"Where is he?" Mom said. "Where's the boy you say is dead?"

"Through here."

He opened the door.

The room smelled of cold and chemicals.

A sheet covered the shape on the metal table.

Dad walked toward it very slowly, one step at a time.

Mom stopped at the door and wouldn't go farther.

"Ready?" the detective asked.

Dad nodded.

The detective drew back the sheet to the shoulders.

I looked at myself.

I had never seen how thin I had gotten.

My face was grey, with deep blue shadows under the eyes, and there was dried blood in my nose and at the corner of my mouth.

Bruises ran across my forehead and down my arms.

Some were old and some were fresh.

The farmer's boot had left a purple print across my ribs.

Mom screamed.

It was a sound I had never heard from her, high and cracked, and it filled the whole low room.

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