#Chapter 497: After

Nathan I held the door open for Olivia as we stepped into the funeral home. She almost seemed to float past me with a faraway look on her face, and could only seem to mumble out a faint “Thank you” as she walked past. This was how things had been for the past three days. It felt as though both of us were moving in a fog, or maybe even a thick mud, ever since that delivery room had been filled with the sound of silence rather than the hearty cries of our son. Alvin. The name felt like a curse now. First our dear friend, and now our baby. Over the past few days, I had begun to wonder if Jenifer’s hex was the culprit, or perhaps the final nail had been struck in the proverbial—and now literal—coffin when we had chosen that name. But deep down, I knew that it was just another stroke of bad luck. Another moment of pure chance. Another drop of misery to add to the bucket. “Good morning. Mr. and Mrs. Ford, yes?” the funeral director, a wiry old man with a slight hunc