Silence dominated the family room of the old Zhu residence. No one in the room dared to break the silence, allowing themselves to absorb the unspoken tension that hung heavily in the air. Each member sat in their respective seats, avoiding eye contact, wrestling with their thoughts and feelings about the news Tiger brought to them.
"That's impossible," Bear was the first to break the prolonged silence reigning in the room. "We buried her."
He slowly raised his head, arms resting on his spread legs, scanning the faces in the room. Except for Dominic, everyone in the room had been at Hera's funeral. All of them had their own stories from that day, but they all shared the heartache of closing the casket and watching it being buried with nothing but earth.
"We were all there as they closed her casket," he continued under his breath. "She can't be alive."
