The world stopped. I froze, my eyes fixed on the flowers on the casket, unable to breathe. I looked up. She smiled at me, a perfect, cold smile, as if she had just told me the coffee was ready. Then she returned to Steven’s side, who was watching me from across the room. And then, my son laughed.

It wasn’t a loud laugh. It was discreet, barely a sound, but I heard it. I felt it like a punch to the stomach, as if the air had been ripped from my lungs.