The Rejected Jinx Is A Billionaire Heiress novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: Eastlawn

Eastlawn Cemetery opened its iron gate for us at five forty in the morning.

Mist lay on the grass, and the Hartwell family plot sat on a low hill under three old oaks.

There were four of us walking up it. Margaret, Levi, my father and me.

Behind us came the cemetery's manager in a raincoat, a county examiner with a black bag and two workmen with tools.

Margaret's lawyer had called in a favor to get them all here at dawn, with no press.

The stone was small and white.

CORDELIA ROSE HARTWELL. MARCH 3. BELOVED DAUGHTER.

Margaret stood in front of it with her hands in her coat pockets.

"I've told this stone about my days for twenty-two years," she said, to nobody. "My husband's funeral. The hotel in Boston. I told it when I thought I couldn't go on."

"Margaret," Levi said gently. "We don't have to do this today."

"Yes. We do."

The workmen set their tools against the stone.

It took forty minutes.

I stood next to my father the whole time. Neither of us said anything.

At some point my hand went into his, the way it had when I was small and we crossed a parking lot, and he held it hard.

I didn't let go.

When they lifted the lid, the examiner stepped in alone.

She was gone for a long time.

When she came back out, she removed her gloves slowly. She went to Margaret first.

"Mrs. Hartwell, I'm very sorry. The remains are those of a newborn male infant at full term."

Margaret said, "A boy."

"Yes."

"Full term."

"Yes."

"My daughter was seven weeks early. She was five pounds."

"This baby is not your daughter, ma'am."

For a moment Margaret didn't move at all.

Then her knees folded, and Levi caught her.

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